Random Musings from the Internet
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 AMD
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 AMD is a compact, lightweight and powerful laptop using AMD’s Ryzen Pro CPU and i bought it early this year to replace my 3 year old refurbished Asus ZenBook UX331 series. That old laptop is started to give me BSOD randomly and it is quite annoying at a time when WFH (Working From Home) is the norm.
The ThinkPad series is Lenovo’s business laptop family and you can’t missed it with its signature professional looking magnesium-aluminum chassis and black finish. It follows the tradition of being ultra durable and yet light weight enough for a life of travel.
When we talk about ThinkPad, we have to mention their keyboards. I am totally in love with their keyboards. They are renowned for the quality of their keyboards and they never disappoint. It is comfortable, accurate and you can type on it all day and not get tired of it. From my first laptop, which is an IBM ThinkPad R40 and later on a Lenovo ThinkPad X61, it still feels excellent to type on and that iconic TrackPoint in the middle of the keyboard is a joy to use. Love that little red nub but the original in the R40 was still the best. One thing to note though is that they reverse the position of its Fn and Ctrl keys, but you can fixed it by visiting the BIOS, or get used to it.
The bezel is still a tad thick as compared to modern design but that is fine with me. The top fits a webcam (720p) with a ThinkShutter privacy guard. I like having a manual privacy shutter on the laptop and that scores a point from me.
They have a good port selection though it is missing a Thunderbolt 3 connector. If you need one of those, you will have to get the Intel version. I don’t need a Thunderbolt connection and i really want to try an AMD powered laptop hence i chose this version. Another plus point is that when other manufacturers pump in more crapware into their laptops, even for their premium lineups, ThinkPad has none of those. That is something i believe everyone loves and should be a standard.
I have tried many laptops in my lifetime and the ThinkPad series still have a place in my heart. That is why i decided to go back to it. You just can’t go wrong with it. In case you are wondering why did i choose other brands before this laptop, that was because i was at a transition stage from using a PC to a laptop and yet wanted some gaming capabilities. Although the ThinkPad is powerful, it still does not have enough GPU power to win discrete graphics. However, with new CPU designs coming up, that might change.
Business Central – Masking password or any data fields on a page
The consultants in the company were asking around if it was possible to mask a data field on a page, similar to the password field in a login page. They were thinking it was not possible as they had never seen any implementation in their existing NAV/BC projects. And that was the cue for me to show off.
I have seen it done before in my research some time ago and it was unsurprisingly simple. It was just one line of code.
ExtendedDatatype = Masked;How it is being used is as shown below.
field(50; "Password"; Text[50])
{
Caption = 'Password';
ExtendedDatatype = Masked;
}The ExtendedDatatype property allows you to control the behaviour of controls on a page. For example, to display a field as a dots (for passwords), or as an email or URL or phone number. You can refer to this microsoft documentation for more information.
The end result is as shown below.
Hugo – First Impression
My brother introduced to me this Wealthcare® service by Hugo that was just launched recently in Singapore. He mentioned that if one is risk adverse to cryptocurrencies, especially due to the recent crash, buying gold can be an alternative as it is seen to be more stable and not as volatile. I guess he was recommending this service as I seemed not so enthusiastic in cryptocurrencies anymore. That is not case for I have been real busy at work and you do need to invest quite a fair amount of time to keep up with the news and all. Nevertheless, I decided to give Hugo a try, out of curiosity and also for “diversifying” my “investments” and “supporting” my brother.
So What Is Hugo?
Hugo, a cute red little robot, is your Wealthcare® buddy who takes care of your financial wellbeing via your digital account that helps you spend, save and invest starting with gold. So how does it do that? According to their website, they provide you with insights so you can spend smarter and also provide tracking tools so you can plan accordingly to save up for your goals. Lastly, they help you to grow your wealth through one off or scheduled deposits into their wealth products (gold investment).
They are also advertising their services as “Accounts Without Compromise”. The money in your account is safeguarded within DBS Bank and your gold is insured and securely stored in LBMA-accredited Vaults. Hugo uses ID theft technology, 2FA and Biometric authentication. They are among the first to offer “numberless” Visa Debit Card, issued by a Fintech in Singapore. According to them, they have 24/7 fraud monitoring and real-time alerts for all your transactions and are covered by Visa’s Zero Liability policy in case of any unauthorized transactions on your Hugo card.
Hmm … That Sounds Interesting …
Now that got me interested. An easy way to buy/trade/invest in gold? I don’t think I have seen any services like that before in Singapore. This is new compared to Robo-investors and cryptocurrencies, and besides, who do not love gold, especially physical gold.
But let’s be clear about this, the gold that you have bought through Hugo are not stored in your possession and they have made it clear in their FAQs that while they allow you to buy and sell gold via their platform, you will not be able to take them out physically. I mean, it is a fair and valid point. You can’t exactly take 10 gram of gold out of a 1 kilogram slab of gold, just like that.
Still I like it for the fact that you can buy fractional amount of gold as compared to buying them in certain “denominations”. There are no recurring charges for the service to store the gold, which by itself is attractive enough. Currently there are no transaction fees for gold trading for the first 6 months from launch, but that might change after that. It also provides a more accessible option for small timers like me to buy gold. Of course, these are all my opinions and my perspective, you might see it differently based on your background and environment. And to me, this is more of an instrument for wealth preservation than investment. Note: Not financial advice, these are just my opinions.
Let’s Sign Up!
The signing up process is relatively straightforward. You can click on my referral link here and be directed to a sign up page.
- Enter your particulars at the referral sign up page
- Download the Hugo Save App from Google Play Store or from Apple App Store
- In the app itself, create your new Hugo account and enter your particulars
- Follow the instructions and you are done!
It is quite a hassle free process and the KYC is straightforward, you just have to take a photo of your identify card (front and back) and a selfie. There are no option to register with Singpass though, but that is fine. KYC verification took less than an hour for me and I sent a request for my Hugo card. I’m still waiting for it after a week.
What Do I Think About Hugo?
Note: Not financial advice, these are just my opinions.
This service might not be for everyone so it is important to figure out what do you want in the first place. Are you looking to preserve wealth, or to get huge returns or to go into gold trading? These are some of the questions to ask yourself first. They are also new in the market and this is something not seen before (at least to me) so it is still pretty hard to gauge if it will take off. So please do your homework, due diligence, research, whatever before making the decision. And with any investments/financial services, there is always a risk that you might lose your money.
I’m also wondering if there are provisions or any information if it is possible to transfer ownership of your account to your descendants. That would be interesting. Not a lot of robo investor service have that information out there. It’s a bit of a gray area. I might do another update a few months later once I received my Hugo card.
Please use my referral link if you are interested! You get $20 Goldback® referral signup bonus with a spending of at least $100 on your Hugo card within 45 days of signing up while I earn $10 Goldback®. Terms and conditions apply. Meanwhile, stay safe everyone!
Warship Legend: Idle RPG
Warship Legend is a mobile game that as the title suggests, revolves around warships. You collect and command a small fleet of warships, six of them, ranging from submarines to aircraft carriers. You will be engaged in some story mode, battle with random people and AIs, with some events to clear from time to time.
The visual aspect of the game is nice, the rendering of the warships are quite accurate to the real world counterparts. It has an intuitive layout and interface, and together with visual effects, gives it an excellent visual experience. I have started on this game about a year ago and i would say even though there were some bad detours, the developers have been consistent in improving the visual aspect.
On gameplay, it is more of a tactical “chess” genre instead of the typical action type frequently found in App/Play Store. Your choice and placement of ship in your formation matters and different variations will yield different effects depending on the opponent setup. That’s pretty much about it as the battles are automatic.
As an idle game, we have the standard feature whereby you amass resources while not actively playing and that is pretty much about it. To progress in the game, you do have to participate and complete events and missions. As you stay in the game longer, it becomes a bit of a grind unless you fork out money (cold hard cash) to accelerate your progress. The developers have made improvements in the game play aspect over time but you can’t deny the “Pay to Win” aspect of it.
I’m still playing the game from time to time and in my opinion, it scores high on the visuals but in terms of gameplay and the grind, i would say there’s still room for improvement. It also depends on whether if you like this kind of naval tactic game as it might not be for everyone. My advice – if you really like the game and are not willing to fork out real money on it, is not to be competitive and play casually. If you really have to pay, i would think reaching VIP level 4 or 5 is good enough.
In Memory of my Uncle
He departed about a year ago due to a freak accident at home. We were all devastated by the news, especially my grandmother. It happened suddenly and unexpectedly. It was hard to accept.
Although he seldom appeared or stayed around during family gatherings, he was always available to help out when required. That includes the weekly fetching of my grandmother for her TCM consultations, temple trips and others. He was very filial and helpful and would help family and friends as much as he could. In a way, he resembled my grandfather who would silently, without complaints, help and support the family as able as he could. For me, who does not have a good father to learn from, he served as a role model and a reminder to how I should be a good example to my children in future.
I hope he is at a better place now. Rest in peace.
It is not about you
Are there situations when you felt that you were being ignored and your feedbacks or comments were not taken seriously by others? You would probably be feeling like a fool and disappointed, perhaps even feeling angry for being belittled. You might even think to yourself, “How dare they do this to me!”.
That happened a few weeks ago that left me feeling indignant – for a while. It happened during a Microsoft Teams meeting with the management regarding an integration project. There were some issues that needed to be clarified and i was making myself useful by offering suggestions and requesting some clarifications of my own. After some time, it became apparent that i was pretty much talking to myself and the meeting ended with me fuming inside.
It was then that i decided it would be more prudent to chill, calm down and to do constructive self reflection. Reviewing my “performance” in the meeting, i had to grudgingly acknowledged that i was contributing more noise instead. Naturally, the next thought that manifested was what impression i had made and what do they think of me. And that, was the self/ego starting to react.
It is not about me. It is not about you. Everyone is actually busy worrying and leading their own life to care about what they think about others. Occasionally they might but they are mostly fleeting thoughts. Do you constantly think about what the other party have done? You would be more worried about your own life than caring what others did.
At the same time, we need to be mindful that they might be unintentionally doing this as they might be pre-occupied with other matters. Especially when remote meeting are the norm during this COVID pandemic, we might not be able to decipher human interactions as accurate as we would like.
So it is NOT about you. CHILL and RELAX. Focus on what matters and move forwards it. 🙂
Razer Mouse and Sandisk External SSD
This post is overdue considering that i got the above a few months back to replace a dead mouse and a misbehaving external storage device. Thought that i should do a quick review on these purchases – Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed Wireless Ergonomic Gaming Mouse and SanDisk SSD E60 Extreme Portable SSD – for folks who might be planning on buying these products.
Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed Wireless Ergonomic Gaming Mouse
I have always preferred gaming mice with the exception of Logitech MX Master series. So even when i am not much of a PC gamer these days, i would still look for a wireless gaming mouse for day to day usage. The size and weight of this mouse is just right for me but that is just my personal preference.
The Razer Basilisk X has dual mode wireless – Bluetooth vs Razer HyperSpeed Wireless connection – which can be easily toggled at the bottom of the mouse. It comes with a USB dongle that is stored in a compartment within the mouse itself and its a feature i liked so that you will not lose them easily. Razer claims that it can last up to 450 hours in Bluetooth mode and up to 285 hours using the USB dongle on a single AA battery. So far i haven’t need to change my battery yet and i am using it on Bluetooth mode. The performance is good and i have not felt any lag as compared to some other Bluetooth mice.
The mouse buttons are using its own mechanical switches with a lifecycle of 50 million clicks. Not sure if the Razer DeathAdder is using the same switches but i hope they are better. I had to retire my old DeathAdder (it was quite a long time ago) because the mouse clicks are getting too mushy and inaccurate. I like the feeling of the mouse clicks for this one too, they feel comfortable and responsive. There are 6 programmable buttons too, not just for gaming – they help with office productivity too.
One thing to note though is that there is no RGB lighting for this mouse. Considering the trend these days – “RGB everything” – it might be a deal breaker for some. I’m not a fan of RGB and would say it is something that is good to have but not a must. Got those mouse via Qoo10 for around SGD55 with coupons and I am happy with it so far.
SanDisk SSD E60 Extreme Portable SSD 1TB
It’s my first time using an external SSD and i must say i’m impressed with the speed and form factor (coming from someone who mainly uses external HDDs). It’s pocket size and light weight so you can carry it with you anywhere with ease.
It has a IP55 rating for water and dust resistance, though the sole USB C port is not covered. The drive is fairly shock resistant with its rubberized exterior and should withstand a drop of 2m on a concrete floor without major damage.
The sole connector, as mentioned, is a USB 3.1 port and the SSD comes bundled with a short USB Type-C to Type-C cable and a Type-A to Type-C USB adapter. According to the manufacturer, it should hit up to 550MBps on the Type-C to Type-C connection, a fraction higher compared to using it with the Type-A adapter.
The SSD comes pre-formatted as an exFAT storage device which means you can use it on a Windows or Mac system out of the box. Some articles do mentioned that you can reformat it to NTFS if you are using it on a Windows device only and that will enable TRIM, which will improve the lifespan of the drive. I am currently leave it as exFAT for use on my Windows device though. I tried connecting it directly to my mobile phone to use as an external storage but it prompted me for a reformat, so i stopped at that.
I bought it for around SGD135, excluding shipping charges via Qoo10. These days i seen it going for SGD129 without shipping charges from time to time. It’s hands-down the best value for money portable SSD i have seen so far.
How To Change Your Twitter Username
I only knew how to do this today, after all these while I had been using it. I guess it’s not very often that one had to change their username of their account. Here are the steps for Twitter (Web), at least that was how I did it.
- Click on the “More” button found at the left hand navigation menu
- Go to “Settings and privacy”
- Under “Your account” section, go to “Account information”
- You might need to re-enter your password at this point
- Under the “username” section, edit and change the username of your choice
Your twitter link will follow this new username too. It is that simple.
Empathy
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