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Singapore Car Prefix Registration

LTA has an interesting PDF showing the list of license plate prefix and registration date of the prefix for Singapore cars. If you want to know how new/old a car is, it is a good reference#.

Based on this PDF, it can be observed that some prefixes which are proper English words are reserved or skipped, eg.

  • SKY
  • SLY

Some reserved prefixes are acronyms of well-known companies:

  • SBS (Singapore Bus Services)
  • SDC (Sentosa Development Corp)

However, other skipped or reserved prefixes don’t seem to have a pattern:

  • SCB
  • SCC
  • SMB

I guess they may be acronyms of some entities that are not well known.

Some letters are also omitted, eg. O and I, presumably to avoid confusion with 0 and 1.

Based on the PDF, I asked Claude to do an analysis, to see the rate of car registrations based on prefixes. This is what it generated.

Interestingly, I gave ChatGPT (the non-plus version) the same prompt and it erred out on its first attempt, and simply generated Pandas code for me the second time round. The code doesn’t work as it attempted to extract data from the PDF using regex.

Based on the graph, it seems that some years have extremely high registrations, eg. 2003-2007. That corresponds to a period where prices are relatively low (prices from 2002 till current from sgcharts.com).

#There are exceptions of course, when people register a new license plate for an old car.

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Windows 10 Desktop

Color me impressed. Did you know the Windows 10 desktop wallpaper is an actual physical window? I didn’t, but now I do.

Our approach involved a live-action shoot using different variables and customizations. Our core concept wanted to position the logo as a portal into the world behind it.

Source: Windows 10 Desktop — GMUNK
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Huawei’s HarmonyOS: “Fake it till you make it” meets OS development

A blistering review of “HarmonyOS” – Huawei’s touted answer to Google’s Android. Turns out it’s actually really Android – at least that’s what the reviewer had access to after an onerous application process which includes a two-day background check.

No discernible difference between Huawei’s “all-new” OS and Android.

And he’s not kidding about the obfuscated language.

Source: Huawei’s HarmonyOS: “Fake it till you make it” meets OS development

Update (2021-06-03): Huawei officially launches HarmonyOS. In summary: HarmonyOS on IoT and smartwatch is based on Huawei’s LiteOS. HarmonyOS for phones and tablets is still based on Android.

The onerous sign-up process remains.

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Review of blog post performance

As I use Google Analytics on this blog, I do receive emails from Google about my blog performance. My article on OneMap3D is currently the top growing page and is now in the top 3 results when you search for “OneMap3D” in Google.

Previously, it achieved the highest rank of #6 on Hacker News and stayed on the front page for almost the whole day.

Apparently the article has also been copied and republished by multiple web scrappers – who disguise themselves as news sites – without attributing it to me or this blog. I won’t give them the satisfaction by linking it here, but you can scroll down Google search results to see it.

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Greater Visibility Through PowerShell Logging | FireEye Inc

Logs are key to understanding what’s going on in your system. Enable PowerShell log to capture unusual activities generated by potential malware using PowerShell.

Mandiant is continuously investigating attacks that leverage Powershell throughout all phases of the attack. A common issue we experience is a lack of available logging that adequately shows what actions the attacker performed using PowerShell. In those investigations, Mandiant routinely offers guidance on increasing PowerShell logging to provide investigators a detection mechanism for malicious activity and a historical record of how PowerShell was used on systems. This blog post details various PowerShell logging options and how they can help you obtain the visibility needed to better respond, investigate, and remediate attacks involving PowerShell.

Source: Greater Visibility Through PowerShell Logging | FireEye Inc

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Nokia’s Next Android Flagship Features Five Cameras – Thurrott.com

“Why stop at 4?”

Nokia’s next flagship Android phone features five cameras, a 5.99-inch PureDisplay, more.

Source: Nokia’s Next Android Flagship Features Five Cameras – Thurrott.com

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iPhone XS: Why It’s A Whole New Camera – Halide

For those who are wondering about the alleged soft filter on the iPhone XS, and other details about the new iPhone XS camera.

What’s this about a ‘soft filter’ on my selfies? It doesn’t exist.

Source: iPhone XS: Why It’s A Whole New Camera – Halide

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Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X – Motherboard

This is both wild and wow. Someone essentially built an iPhone X look-alike both in terms of hardware and software, but it is actually running Android.

Source: Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X – Motherboard

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What is that popup on Windows 10 that disappears after a split second? – gHacks Tech News

It got me paranoid when I notice the blink-and-you-miss opening and closing of a popup ever so often when using Windows 10. After turning on process audit I finally managed to track it down to officebackgroundtaskhandler.exe. Turns out it is due to Ms Office doing some who-knows-what background handling. Follow the article below to disable the annoying popup.

If you run Microsoft Windows 10, you may have noticed a popup window being launched on the screen once a day, or even regularly.

Source: What is that popup on Windows 10 that disappears after a split second? – gHacks Tech News

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Microsoft announces the next version SQL Server for Windows and Linux

The love for Linux continues under Nadella’s stewardship. Microsoft SQL Server now available on Linux. Who would have thought. In separate news, Microsoft joins Linux foundation.

Microsoft’s announcement that it was bringing its flagship SQL Server database software to Linux came as a major surprise when the company first announced..

Source: Microsoft announces the next version SQL Server for Windows and Linux