Haze Vs Chips

So what works harder when the haze blows about and blankets Singapore?

The darling for the Singapore economy has been the electronics sector. It’s been expanding for 16 months in a row and the last Electronics Purchasing Managers’ Index EPMI was at 52.9 in September up from 52.6 in August. 

The electronics Non-oil Domestic Exports NODX was up 107% year-on-year in the same month. These numbers are unheard of in a regular economy in a mature first world economy.

They’re being driven by the demand for AI infrastructure, chips and the sort. The electronics industry makes up 40% of all Singapore manufacturing output and provides jobs to 20% of the available workforce.

That's 70k jobs. It’s important you can bet. And it's looking rosy for now, maybe slightly grey-tinted hazy.

A unique quirk for the electronics industry is that most things they put out are remarkably tiny, chips on boards I mean. And when tiny things are being put together, other tiny things can interfere. Even bad air.

Most semiconductor manufacturing requires ultra pure air. People have to wear PPE type suits to ensure they don’t contaminate environments to keep the quality of output up to scratch.

They measure the bad air in parts per million or billion, and there are ISO standards for Class 1 cleanrooms requiring fewer than 10 particles per cubic meter larger than 0.1 microns.

The bad air is likely causing some worry among the folks in charge of the HVAC, air filtration systems, and production quality control at these companies. Just like how dust accumulates more at home, the same pesky pollutants are probably giving the giant clean air machines a good run for their money. They're working harder because of the haze.

And just like how we clean at home, these expensive industrial filters probably need more wipes and quicker replacement. And that adds cost.

Overall production can be maintained but a higher operating cost which means lower margins.  Don’t think anyone is looking at how this impact is gonna affect Q3/Q4 NODX numbers but this goes beyond just people getting sick and how much time/money we spend outside. Maybe The Business Times might want to ask around.

Not Seeing The Sun In The Haze

 

When Steak Isn't

A friend was so hungry that when he saw “steak” on the menu in a restaurant, he decided unequivocally to fulfil his heart’s desire. Along however came a well-grilled cauliflower steak. He apparently was devastated by his poor comprehension of the written word, and equally disappointed that his meat serving was diametrically opposite from his salivary intentions. (Perhaps he should have been triggered a smidge when no request for doneness followed his order.)

When I heard this tale of woe, I wondered if there is a need to have set boundaries for how some words are used to describe authentic and perhaps original meaning. Like champagne, where the fizzy stuff is only champagne if it is borne out of the Champagne region in France. Or shortbread is only shortbread if it has the requisite one-third or more factor of butter present in each morsel of God-sent goodness. Should “steak” only be used to describe cuts of meat? I think so. A salmon steak works too, pink-orange protein as testament. No more use of “steak” by vegetarians to fool the rest of us into avoiding meat. 

Also ice cream should really have cream right? Many mass-produced ice creams out there don’t even use real milk, but milk powder and palm oil to recreate the creaminess required. I guess some of these substitutions happen to make products cheaper and more accessible to a larger audience but I guess it doesn’t hurt to know what one is putting in one’s mouth. 

A bit of research enlightens me that cheeses have a good deal of Geographical Indications like champagne does. Parmesan should only come from certain parts of Italy, feta must come from Greece and made via traditional means, and the blue cheese roquefort can only be named so if it ripened in the caves Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in France!

Some more Googling reveals more amazing nomenclature revelations for the most basic things we eat. In the US, peanut butter must contain at least 90% peanuts else it is “peanut spread”; If vegetable oil is used in chocolate instead of cocoa butter, the label must be changed to “chocolate-flavoured candy”; And back to ice cream, there must be a minimum 10% milk fat to be called such, else it’s a “frozen dairy dessert”. 

So there are various standards and protections around the world for how food is made and named (mostly in the US and EU), and slammed if manufacturers don’t abide by the rules. I love it, keeps us kosher so to speak. Don't think it'll work in Asia though because we're so used to the fusion of ingredients and experimentation of flavours, I'm not sure if standards of purity and exact production can be adequately enforced.

Back to beef about “steak”, I’d bring it up if I see it the misnomer. One menu at a time. 

Why I'm Giving Up A Month After Using Google Pixel 10

Mobile phones have become instant tech appendages to our daily lives. We pick them up fully charged when we wake up, glance at whatever information that didn't seep in via our dreams, let reality bite and start our day, one creaky knee at a time. 

Not many of us think too hard about the devices we have until it's time to make the upgrade, maybe because battery life issues have induced mid-afternoon panic attacks or green-with-envy eyes have seen enough new phone ads to dump one's green light-streaked devices. 

I have had a schizophrenic relationship with my mobile phones. Since the iPhone era came to being, I have had a 6S, then an 11 I think, then I jumped to a Pixel, then a Samsung S22, and back to an iPhone 14 Plus. The insanity has, true to history, continued its erratic pattern in spite of multiple voices of concern and biased reason. I decided to purchase a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL a month ago, and now I have sold my soul, likely eternally, to the Apple gods by buying an iPhone 17 Pro Max, it's 6 plus inches currently jostling for space in my left Bermuda shorts pocket.

Yes, just a mere month later. 

Let me explain why I have decided to relinquish my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL. Firstly, the full descriptor is 8 syllables long.

Kidding. My iPhone does go by one syllable less though. 

Proper reason 1 - I could not migrate my Whatsapp messages. There is a function in the IOS version of Whatsapp that declares plainly "Move chats to Android" and the Pixel also had a transfer Whatsapp messages function during startup, and via Android Switch. I tried 3 times, each time the migration progress bar would hit 99% and proceed to stay there for far too long. My attempts were enough anxiety stirring for Meta/Whatsapp to lock my account for 3 hours. I could not plead my innocence as a regular human non-scammer entity either. So my life on Whatsapp had to begin anew with no content. Some might say no baggage, so I have been a little ambivalent about the psychological aspect of this tech failure. 

Side note - why hasn't anyone sued Meta/Whatsapp for performing backups to iCloud only for IOS devices, and concurrently gone after Google for the same to Google Drive only? This anti-competitive behaviour reeks of collusion among 3 of the FAANG companies. 

Proper reason 2 - I could not unlock the Pixel with my face in low light conditions. In the back of the taxi or while walking down a street at night, the Pixel had trouble figuring out who I was. After failing with my face, it would seek to ask for my fingers to attempt being friends. This failed too many times too. "Press harder" it would suggest and indeed sometimes this effort worked but goddamn, this relationship was tiring me out. The next level of security was entering a six digit PIN, the always effective key. This negative experience repeated itself while I was out at night along the busy streets of Hanoi trying to find my way via Google Maps back to my bed. 

Proper reason 3 - an OS update removed my biometric access from some apps. Having one's biometric data eases login processes on many apps, including those from banks I have accounts with. I moved money from one bank to another, and wanted to check the balance in my receiving bank account. The biometric set up I had sorted out a week earlier didn't work, and it just so happened I forgot the password to log in. Voila, I was locked out after multiple failed attempts. I reset the password at the bank's branch in my neighbourhood. Big boo boo this one. 

Proper reason 4 - Instagram went blank twice when I tried to share content. The screen was just black with no instruction, no spinning wheel, no broken robot, nothing. I thought the battery had drained completely the first time it happened. 

Proper reason 5 - the increased text size function doesn't work across some apps. With age, I have found that I needed to increase the text size on my phone. With some apps on the Pixel (Telegram, Gojek), the text size remained debilitatingly tiny despite the system setting. It was frustrating, especially on the Gojek app to figure out locations and vehicle numbers. I ended up waiting for my driver at the wrong Changi Airport door. 

Annoying reason 6 - the edit function on Whatsapp messages on Android is a 3-step process while in IOS it's two. Tap message - open menu at top - click Edit versus tap message - click Edit icon. I don't get why Meta/Whatsapp can't standardise this user flow across both OSs. The fact that my eyes and fingers have to move this much more, relatively, is ridiculous. 

Minor reason 7 - the configurable Control Centre set up on IOS (a recent development) makes it quicker to access functions than on the Pixel. 

Is that enough? I had had enough three weeks in, and proceeded sold my iPhone 14 Plus and Google Pixel to Mister Mobile after moving my life and obedience to the great, life affirming Pomme. 

Reasons to have held on the Pixel:

- the camera is amazing.

- I found the lock screen view simpler and prettier. My iPhone 14 Plus could not show the time on the lock screen btw. Found out it was intentional IOS limit for non-Pro devices.