neverforeverdotnet

Over on TheeCakeScraps (via BoingBoing), this guy gives us the rundown on how much profit is likely turned by a single laptop auction on swoopo.com. Going through the mechanics of the site, I can’t help but draw parallels with local baby tatarah.com - only difference being that here “single highest bid” wins over “highest bid” - which is the case on Swoopo.

An auction for a laptop that says on the auction page, and I quote, “Worth up to $1,399.99″ The winning bidder, as stated on the site, placed 2020 bids. That is $2,020!! And the auction page proclaims “Savings: 0%” when it really should read negative! So Swoopo made like $600. BUT WAIT! The auction started at $0.00 and finished at $3,353.85. Now read that again. They were already up $600 from the winners bids alone. The winner sucker still had to pay $3,353.85 because that was the price of the auction. Okay, so Swoopo walks away with a cool $4,000 pure profit. (Like a bad TV commercial) BUT WITH THERE’S MORE! Remember that bids are placed in 15 cent increments. That means that if the auction finished for $3,353.85 you take that divided by $0.15 which equals $22,359 in bids!!!! That brings total profit to $22,359 (bids) + $3,353.85 (auction) -$1,399.99 (retail cost of laptop, probably not their cost) = $24,312.86

You feel lucky today?

Gary @ 06 Oct 2008 :: General, All the news that's fit to print, Good readin' :: No Comments »

I was in line at a food court stall just earlier. It was dinner hour, and I was part of a long queue which had formed at the storefront, running parallel to the counter. After a good 10 minutes of waiting in line, I reached the front of the queue, with just one lady in front of me. When her order arrived, she decided that some fried bawang would go very well with her dish, and proceeded to request said bawang from the stallholder through a complex game of charades. She pointed at something vague, and got an extra bowl. Not being what she wanted, she returned the thing and tried again. And again.

While largely entertaining under other circumstances, holding up the only service person (and by extension, the entire line) with a cute game of guess-what-I-have-in-mind does not run well with me, nor I suspect, anyone else in the queue.

Here’s a protip for you, lady. The next time miming doesn’t work, how about you open your fucking mouth?

Gary @ 06 Oct 2008 :: Bitchin' :: No Comments »

So, what are all those women planning to do?

Gary @ 30 Sep 2008 :: General :: No Comments »

Hot day + slow afternoon + ham and cheese sandwich + beer + YouTube + senseless stinkbomb prank videos = WIN.

Gary @ 27 Sep 2008 :: General, All the news that's fit to print :: No Comments »

Gary @ 27 Sep 2008 :: Funny, A thousand words, pwned :: No Comments »

So it appears that one day, Chee Soon Juan showed up in NTU out of the blue and the Chronicle scrambled to piece together a story - which was unfortunately killed by the Suits:

After much negotiation between the paper’s teacher-advisors and the university, NTU president Su Guaning gave the article the go-ahead. However, he changed his mind at the last minute, and the article was removed just one day before the newspaper’s publication on Monday (15th September).
…
In the end, it featured only a visit of a different sort – that of the former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who is a stranger among Singaporean students.

“there was a feeling of concern over the use of student media to publicise and promote the unsolicited views of an uninvited person to the campus,” goes the official word, but hey - you wait. Just wait till one day the PM shows up unannounced. It’ll be on the front page of not just the Chronicle, but every sheet of paper leaving the corporate comms office.

Disclaimer: Don’t let the fact that I’ve had so many run-ins with the NTU admin fool you into thinking that I”m biased. Not at all! :)

Gary @ 23 Sep 2008 :: All the news that's fit to print, Stifle me, stifle you :: 1 Comment »

Not the same:

Math.round(Math.random()*2)
and
Math.floor(Math.random()*3)

Goddamit.

Gary @ 22 Sep 2008 :: Bitchin' :: No Comments »

Currently in a rather musical mood, so here’s sharing the joy.

Over the Rainbow

Ellens dritter Gesang (Ave Maria)

Continue Reading »

Gary @ 21 Sep 2008 :: Music :: No Comments »

A spokesman for the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said: ‘The smuggling of contraband goods has tremendous security implications for Singapore’s safety and security as the same concealment methods used by smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in the country.

Emphasis entirely mine, but seriously, what the hell? Logical fallacy FTW.

(At work now. Venn diagram to follow.)

Clearly, people who smuggle cigarettes must be punished severely as they also use the same methods to smuggle weapons into Singapore OMG.

Gary @ 15 Sep 2008 :: WTF, Stifle me, stifle you :: No Comments »

This is the kind of news you make up, then have a chuckle about. Only this time it actually happened. Somone on Fark pointed out that God hates Fuqing liars.

Lightning strikes as man takes oath

IN a bizarre incident, a man in eastern China was struck by lightning just as he lifted an iron bar over his head to swear that god would punish him if he had taken money from his friend.

The man, who was identified as Xu, had borrowed 500 yuan (US$73.21) from a close friend surnamed Huang three years ago. Xu, who lived in Fuqing City, Fujian Province, later forgot all about it, according to a news Web portal in Fujian.

But Huang remembered and complained before other friends that Xu had taken money from him.

On Tuesday, Huang took a wooden rod and rushed to Xu’s home asking him to return the money. Xu too confronted Huang with an iron bar and stood his ground.

Huang then told Xu that he should swear before god that he was not in his debt. Xu lifted the iron bar over his head and said if he owed Huang money, the god would punish him. Just then he was struck by lightning.

He was later taken to hospital, and doctors said his injuries were not serious.

Gary @ 30 Aug 2008 :: A thousand words, All the news that's fit to print, w00t! :: 1 Comment »