From my new studio apartment - Singapore on 1 Sep 2010

Posted Sep 1, 2010, 1:47 AM UTC

Posted Sep 1, 2010, 1:47 AM UTC
I am so jealous.
Then I'll be sure to not mention the 100mbit Internet connection.
*cries himself to sleep* (I live in Canada, it costs a small to medium fortune just for 50mbps)
M1 will offer fiber optic line up to 1GB in coming week.
I missed that article. Probably should post it to r/singapore. I'll have to upgrade when they add fiber to my place at the start of next year.
Incidentally, has there been a Singapore meetup?
Posted in the other in r/Singapore. Signed up yesterday. 3 months free trial for sign up only on yesterday and possibly tomorrow. No contract. Pricing should be under $60sgd. Current modem only supports 100mbs/10mbs up. Long line.
So many cranes
Would you recommend Singapore as a place to live? From a cursory glance at the wikipedia article it looks amazing.
I've only been here a short time, but so far I like it. Good public transport, English-speaking (mostly), cheap data, and good cheap food. Meals at outdoor markets can be had for under US$3.
The Internet is mostly unfiltered, mostly because they realize they would gain nothing by filtering it. Along those lines, it's definitely not Free. The biggest WTF is that homosexuality is still illegal. Drug trafficking is punishable by death, so if that's your thing you won't want to live here.
It reminds me of a cross between Japan and China. It's very organized and has rather upscale shops, and great public transport. It's a very safe place even at odd ours of the night, and overall is very dense (5 million people on a small island). But there's lots of open-air "hawker" stalls that are usually associated with China.
It's also very hot, but there's air conditioning everywhere.
Overall, I think it's an interesting place to spend a couple of years. Especially if you're in the tech sector and want to be in a reasonably Western country with cheap access to "far away" places like Malaysia and Thailand.
Thanks for sharing :)
What do you do there and where are you from?
From San Diego originally. I do embedded Linux work. For now I'm working out of my apartment. Which, given the view and the connection, is rather enjoyable :)
This is how I find out you're planning on spending a couple of years in Singapore?
I'm expecting flowers and gifts when I visit now.
I was bored, so I searched the building, where it was taken from in google earth:
Is your Appartment in that pic or did I go the wrong way? :D
That'd be the one. Very distinctive shape :)
On the topic of 'name that skyline' I am guessing you are in the Pearl Bank?
Yep! And I'm guessing you're in Ang Mo Kio?
No. Actually Holland V. I looked at some studios in the pearl but they were the bottom half of the original full sized unit. You had to use those tiny 'inner' stairs to access and it gave me incredible vertigo when it was raining. Still, one of my favorite buildings here.
Yeah, those are actually the servants' stairs, from what I understand. When the place was originally built, the servants lived downstairs, and the owners lived upstairs. Since that doesn't really happen anymore, people tend to rent out bits of the apartment to different people.
Since that doesn't really happen anymore
You sure you live in Singapore? Every place an agent shows me always has a place for the maid to sleep.
I am very jealous. The Pearl Bank has some incredible history. Plus, the Tiong Baru hawker center is very close.
The future is sunny!
I've discovered that weather reports here tend to be very confused. It'll probably get to 95° and stay sunny all day, but the reports tend to be a bit different
Tropical weather is notoriously difficult to forecast. Small thunderstorms can pop up anywhere, and they're usually very localized. So when a storm pops, one area will get a drenching, while someone 10 miles away may have no idea it even existed. Really hard to cover all bases with that one.