Idea: Transport vouchers!

The in-thing now: vouchers!

Take from car owners and give it to the 'genuine needy'. This is as socialist as it can get!

Every year, every car owner has to contribute 1% of his car's purchase price (including COE) to the Genuine Needy Transport Fund.

Suppose a car is on average $100k (this is low cos cars were 'cheap' in the past), 1% of $100k of 500k cars = $500 mil/year.

Genuine needy can be grouped into:

• 20 trips/week: $2,000 per month
• 10 trips/week: $1,000 per month
• 6 trips/week: $600 per month

Each trip is subsidized up to $25.

At $500 mil/year and $2k/mth per person, this can support 20k people.

There you have it: an alternative way to support the 'genuine needy'!

The vouchers are non-transferrable (*). Unused portion is not rolled over.

(*) This must be foolproof, so it has to be implemented using an app — a Wallet app!

The user must tap on the app at pickup and dropoff points with Location enabled. There will be some leeway per month.

The driver will have an app too. He needs to take a picture of the user at both pickup and dropoff points. This is optional, but frequent non-compliance will be flagged — for both the driver and the user.

The above is not 100% foolproof, but is meant to raise the barrier of misuse.

If found to be abused, the user will be dropped from the scheme.

Controversial fairness of COE

Recently James Lim of WP brought up the fairness of COE and he was rebutted by many people.

The issue was unaffordability by "those with genuine needs".

This is not a new issue. It has been there even when COE was $30k. There are always people who cannot afford to pay the prevailing rate.

COE is purely based on money: you can have it if you are willing to pay. Obviously, there are enough people who are willing to pay $100k COE. It is fine if it is a level playing ground, but it is not. I feel there are two groups of people driving up the price:

• 100% loan
• PHV companies

100% loan

100% loan has been around for many years, but nothing has been done to curb it. 100% loan makes even a $200k purchase 'affordable' on a monthly installment basis.

The loan amount needs to be tied to annual income. For example, maximum loan amount is 150% of annual income. You normally won't want to fake higher annual income.

No income? Pay cash, or pledge Government bonds that cover the duration of the loan. Once pledged, they are 'locked'. They can be redeemed as the loan is reduced.

This will be super unpopular. Only the well-off can buy cars? This makes cars an elitist symbol. But it already is.

Think of it this way: this is to ensure you don't spend beyond your means. If you have annual income of $30k, you can borrow up to $45k. If max LTV is 70% (it is 60% today), then the most expensive car you can buy is $64.3k — including COE. Of course, you are free to top-up with cash.

You can see it is not realistic to own a car with $30k annual income. If your annual income is $60k, you can borrow up to $90k and can buy up to $128.6k.

Buyers can always take personal loans to cover the cash portion, this is where TDSR (Total Debt Servicing Ratio) comes in. TDSR should not exceed 75% (say) of your monthly take-home income for car purchases.

Live within your means, people!

PHV companies

Many people suspect PHV companies are the ones driving up COE, though LTA has denied it.

LTA 2024 car statistics show 524,418 private cars (79.7%), vs 31,012 self-drive PHV (4.71%) and 59,371 company PHV (9.03%).

This statistic is misleading, cos you have to look at the vehicles added in the past few years.

Private cars increased by 5k, but PHV 18k. And you say PHV have no impact on COE?

The above table does not give an accurate view, but it should serve as a back-of-envelope check. LTA does not release private-vs-PHV breakdown by COE allocation.

LTA is highly resistant against adding a new category for PHV. I don't see why it has to be a new category. Why can't it take the prevailing COE just like taxi? Add a premium if needed.

I know what LTA likes most: formulas!

I propose a premium based on the percentage of PHV over total cars in the last 6 months times 2, plus 130%.

If all cars sold are PHV, then it is 100% * 2 + 130%. If 50% of the cars sold are PHV, it is 50% * 2 + 130%.

This is self-correcting. If PHV take up a high portion, it is automatically more expensive. The higher the proportion they take, the more expensive it gets.

If there is only 1% PHV, the premium is 132%. PHV should pay a premium because they can monetize their rides.

COE remains unchanged. It is what the buyer is willing to pay. If 100% of the cars are PHV, COE is 330% of what they bid for; it can be $1, so they pay $3.30.

Genuine needs

Making car affordable for the 'genuine needy' is problematic.

What is 'genuine needy'? Is it one category or multiple? Is there degree of neediness?

Is it for all of them? As in, a subsidy? (Subsidies ironically cause price to rise.)

Is there a quota? (Leading to lottery effect.)

Do they need it every day, or just once a week? Does the usage justify preferential treatment?

Whenever there is a gap to market price — an arbitrage — someone will take advantage of it. What if they buy and 'rent out' the car?

Even if they don't pay COE, a cheap car still costs $50k. Sure this is affordable? Next is to remove ARF...

Looking from the wrong angle

Rather than exempting COE for a group of people, we should instead see if COE is propped up 'artificially' and find ways to bring it down.

Distance-based charging will help, but it is many years in the future.

But though this is fairer, many people will not like it.

Cassette tape resurgence

This came up on my TaoBao feed and I have no idea why. I had not been looking at anything remotely related.

The portable player looked very sleek to me. I almost thought it was a MP3 player disguised as a Walkman! So this is how a modern Walkman looks like? This one is wired, but there should be Bluetooth models, right?

I did a quick search and found there are indeed Bluetooth-enabled Walkmans! And they are cheap, just 130 yuan (S$23.20). But to get a nice looking one, you got to pay 375 yuan (S$67) for the Toshiba Aurex AX-W10.

This is a little higher than I expected, but surely this is a premium Walkman?

Nope. Toshiba has sold its consumer electronic business, the Walkman is made by a Chinese company. Only the "Toshiba" name remains. This is a new model, released in 2023, but build quality is only so-so and the cassette mechanism is the same as other low-end Walkmans costing 100 yuan, meaning it is terrible.

Unlike many other Walkmans, it lists its frequency response: 100 Hz to 10 kHz. I lost interest immediately. The truth hurts. I'm going to assume if a low-end Walkman does not state, it is the same or worse!

If you want a real decent modern Walkman with Bluetooth, you are looking at We Are Rewind (WAR) Walkmans, costing S$240! And it lists its frequency response at 30 Hz to 12.5 kHz. Low-end is good, but top-end seems a bit low.

Type I tapes (the most common) have FR of 30 Hz to 14 kHz, type II 30 Hz to 16 kHz. So it is missing a bit on the high end.

Also, due to low-end tape mechanism, modern Walkmans have high wow and flutter (due to variable playing speed).

I also read Dolby Labs stopped licensing Noise Reduction for cassette tapes. But the truth is that the patents have expired, so the tech can be used on modern Walkmans (not sure if they are), they just cannot use the name. There are B, C and S Dolby NR. Even in the past, most Walkmans only support B.

The takeaway is to get a Walkman from the 'old days' (i.e. the 80s and 90s).

There are three issues. First, they are secondhand; their condition is variable. Second, they may be using proprietary batteries. Is the battery still available? They also need a dedicated charger, which is a hassle. Third, they are purely wired, no Bluetooth.

The Walkman shown above is in fact an old Sony Walkman. The half that holds the tape has been replaced with a clear cover, giving it a very clean and modern look. Some replaced the other half, but I feel it is unnecessary — you just see the PCB, belts and battery. They do not look nice at all. (*)

(*) I suspect those with clear covers on the other side are to show off their upgraded flywheels.

I did a quick search and found Sony Walkmans typically have frequency response of 30 Hz to 15 kHz. You can see the difference right there.

After some googling, I found how to decipher Sony Walkman model names. EX = playback only, FX = play + radio, GX = play + radio + record. EX is sufficient. I don't listen to FM radio. GX only supports rudimentary recording. Recording is best done on a tape deck.

As for the numbers, 100 to 4xx are low-end, 500 to 6xx are mid-range, 700 to 8xx are higher-end (has LCD display, though some 600 also have). The flagships are single digit, EX-1 to EX-9 (no 8, though). 900s are cost-reduced flagships (generally).

The flagship models, to be slick and futuristic, put most of their controls are on the remote. This really dates them today. The best models to use today have all their controls on the Walkman itself.

A late year model, such as EX-615 (year 2000), can be found easily; half-clear at 400+ yuan and fully-clear at 600+ yuan (S$107.14) with upgraded flywheels. This is a lot of money for a 25 years old used electronic item, but it is at least good quality. "They don't make it like that anymore" really applies here.

Battery-wise, Sony uses proprietary gumstick batteries, but OEM ones are readily available, with capacity of 1400 mAh. They can last up to 16 hours. A dedicated charger is needed.

Like AA batteries, some entreprenuer has come up with a USB-C re-chargeable gumstick battery! It is super convenient to charge, but it is expensive (60 yuan vs 8 yuan for a regular piece). Some people wondered if it produces a lot of heat since it must step the voltage down from Lithium-ion's native 3.7V to the Walkman's 1.2V.

If gumstick battery is a concern, a AA-battery caddy can attach to the Walkman and regular AA batteries be used.

The next issue is Bluetooth. No way around it, have to get a battery-powered Bluetooth transmitter dongle.

So, go ahead or not? :devil:

Baseus Palm 65W charger

Although I said I won't buy another 65W charger, they are unbeatable in price. 100W chargers are expensive — and heavy. (Nowadays it is 120W and 140W chargers.)

65W chargers are also good enough for my two usual use-cases: 65W alone for notebook, or 45W + 15W for notebook and mobile phone.

I bought the Baseus Palm 65W charger and will retire the GaN2 Pro 65W charger. The latter works well, except it is US-pin. It will take some time to sell even though I list it very cheaply.

The Palm charger feels heavy for its size. At first, I thought it is heavier than my go-to Lencent 65W travel adapter (185.6g), but it is not (145.8g).

I have a 100W charger in mind. Waiting for it to be available in white. Before you buy a 100W charger, you have to check its power distribution. Lencent has a 100W charger with 5 ports (4 USB-C and 1 USB-A). Only one port supports 100W — this is normal — but the other USB-C ports only support 15W each!

In contrast, the Ugreen Nexode GaN charger I have in mind:

• C1: 100W, C2: 100W, C3: 22.5W, A: 22.5W
• C1+C2: 65W + 30W, C1+(C3/A): 65W + 22.5W
• C2+C3: 65W + 22.5W, C3+A: 10W + 10W
• C1+C2+(C3/A): 45W + 30W + 22.5W, (C1/C2)+C3+A: 65W + 10W + 10W
• C1+C2+C3+A: 45W + 30W + 10W + 10W

The power distribution is much more logicial.

Job market is really bad, huh?

Translation: if you can find a job — any job — go for it, even if it is not your field or much lower pay than you expected.

It must be quite bad if he has to appeal for people to keep calm. According to him, employment rate for graduating cohort of 2025 in in June 2025 was 51.9%. This is pretty low! (It was 47.9% in June 2024.)

(Note that the students have not graduated. The figure to look at is employment rate after 6 months of graduation.)

The issue now is that we are in the middle of 'change'. Tech is old now. It is now AI. But the current batch of graduates are not trained in that.

However, if you go into AI now, by the time you graduate 3 years later, it may have changed again.

A new shower head

My shower head has spoilt after 12 years. It still works, but it no longer shoots distinct streaks of water. It must be letting air in somewhere. Originally, I thought it was the hose, but it was the same with a new hose.

I wanted an identical shower head, but found something better — an all-chromed model.

When it arrived, I was surprised it was not round, but oval in shape. I quickly took a look at the product shot. It was oval. I had overlooked it due to the angle. Oops. (Can you tell it is oval above?)

Water pressure is good. Then I realize the water seems to cover a smaller area. No wonder, it has only 10 nozzles along the long axis (total 50) compared to 19 on the old one (total 10x4 + 9x3 = 67).

I'll use this for now. I found another suitable shower head (~60 yuan; S$10.72). It is all-chromed, round and has 14 nozzles vertically (total 70). Will get that when this spoils.

Using incorrect wheels

My IKEA Malkolm chair rolls very poorly. I don't remember if it was the case since day one, or it became worse over time.

I looked for a replacement and found that some people recommend rollerblade wheels for easy rollability, although there is feedback the chair legs can break because the weight is now pressing on the legs instead of the wheels. They also increase the height of the chair slightly.

It turns out there is also a dual wheel variant that uses sort-of rollerblade wheels.

This caused me to recall the time I bought the wheels. The original wheels were rubberized and they had peeled off. When I bought the replacement wheels, I was given a choice of rubber and non-rubber wheels. I chose the latter.

This was before TaoBao or Lazada. I had to visit a warehouse in an industrial area to buy the wheels — IKEA 10 mm wheels were not sold by normal hardware shops. Today, I just order them from TaoBao.

The wheels roll extremely smoothly. :lol:

Plastic wheels are only suitable for carpeted floors.

Electric bill 2025

^* Estimated.

My electrical usage is now quite reliably over 600 kWh per month. The top two contributors: air-con and dehumidifiers.

The old air-con uses roughly 10 kWh a day, its duty cycle is 70 – 80%. It is not efficient at all. I estimate a modern inverter air-con uses half its energy only. My experience with the new air-con is that it consumes the same energy during the cooling cycle, but it is very efficient at maintaining temperature.

150 kWh per month = $45 (at $0.30 / kWh). If a new air-con costs $4k, it will take 7.4 years to break even. It is almost never cost effective to replace a perfectly usable appliance.

I'm now running three dehumidifiers. :horror: The one in the master room is run for 12 hours. It uses around 2.5 kWh a day. Another one is run around 6 hours, so around 1.2 kWh/day. The last one is only run an hour a day, it is 'negligible'.

These two appliances add up to almost 400 kWh already...

An almost head-on accident

I was on my way to Desaru and was on this two-lane highway. A slow-ish truck was in front of me. It was not easy to overtake as there was another truck in front of it: truck - car - truck - me.

Finally, there was an opening and I overtook it. The car was underpowered, so it took some time to move past the truck. Meanwhile, a car was approaching from the opposite side. It flashed its headlights. I was considering if there was enough time to overtake the car, but it would be really close. I decided to slow down and cut in so it became: truck - car - me - truck.

In the end, it turned out there was no need to overtake. In just a while, we reached the end of the two-lane road.

I was thinking, I'll probably encounter the same scenario on my way back, I would be the one flashing my headlights then. :-D

I actually forgot about this on the way back. Suddenly, I saw a long convoy of vehicles approaching on the opposite lane. One car was in the midst of overtaking, but it could not overtake fast enough, nor was there space for it to cut back in. It flashed at me.

I was stunned momentarily. I quickly checked my left was clear and had enough space, then I nudged the car to the left. The overtaking car squeezed its way past me. A two-lane road had 3 vehicles side-by-side.

Soon after it passed me, another overtaking car flashed at me. It also could not cut back into its lane, or perhaps it did not even bother to. It again squeezed past me.

It was only after this that I recalled I wanted to flash overtaking cars. Instead, they flashed me! :angry: