10 things I hate about Singapore

[Sooner8]

Thank you nakatago and AngMog for clarifying.

[nakatago]

There is nothing illegal about using VPN here - this is not China or Iran
They just cut scenes out of cable / local on-demand TV, in order to protect the innocence of the local children and adults.

That's the beauty of censorship in Singapore: they'll only go so far as it is convenient for them.

For example, someone here posted that he hates Singapore because his favorite porn site was recently blocked. Apparently, it wasn't before it become popular.

[Hannieroo]

I wasn't joking. Where we lived before a white, blonde woman on her own was assumed to be Russian so therefore a hooker. Not my thinking or my assumption but my experience. So, here may have some courtesy issues of it's own but I don't feel unsafe. And nobody has spat at me or thrown rocks at my dog. Bonus.

[AngMoG]

I wasn't joking. Where we lived before a white, blonde woman on her own was assumed to be Russian so therefore a hooker. Not my thinking or my assumption but my experience. So, here may have some courtesy issues of it's own but I don't feel unsafe. And nobody has spat at me or thrown rocks at my dog. Bonus.

In my experience, it all depends on how you dress... enough Russian women unfortunately dress the part

[Hannieroo]

Personally I dress like a soccer mom but I can accept that your experiences as a lone white woman in the Middle East might be different to mine.

[x9200]

I wasn't joking. Where we lived before a white, blonde woman on her own was assumed to be Russian so therefore a hooker. Not my thinking or my assumption but my experience. So, here may have some courtesy issues of it's own but I don't feel unsafe. And nobody has spat at me or thrown rocks at my dog. Bonus.

In my experience, it all depends on how you dress... enough Russian women unfortunately dress the part

Russian women tend to dress kind of nouveau riche "style" and typically older, have it more. It is about the make up, jewellery and various adds-on that creates an impression of a walking cliche but not necessary to show anyhow that they are sexually attractive. My experience with hookers is admittedly very limited but I believe the sexual attraction factor is there much more visible.

For example, one can be dressed like a soccer mom and I can still tell she is likely a Russian.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Or Sarah Palin, but again, she can see Russia from her house in Alaska, right?

(actually that's not what she said)

[iamsen]

There was a Russian sawari-houdai club near where I lived in Tokyo. My impression of Russian woman are that, they look fierce.

[Hannieroo]

Fabulous. But now I know why on any holiday, anywhere, locals always say "russky?" to me. I have a fierce face.

In Azerbaijan most of the non-expat woman sported that evening dressed up sequin look for daytime. In a city of cobbles you never see a flat shoe.

[zzm9980]

No netflix so no problem.

No Netflix without a VPN, anyway.

My daughter will be devastated without access to all the Sesame Street episodes that we access via NetFlix for her. So, is having a Virtual Private Network legal if it gives access to this service that is not available to general citizenry?

Your use of a VPN will likely violate the terms of service for Netflix or any other services you use. Will anything happen? Worst case they kill your account or block the VPN access. They can do this by identifying the IP your VPN provider assigns as belonging to said VPN provider. It's not likely to happen, so I wouldn't worry though.

[Sooner8]

In a city of cobbles you never see a flat shoe.

True dat! In the countries I have been to in the former SU, they must have the highest footwear with high heels per capita

[Sooner8]

Your use of a VPN will likely violate the terms of service for Netflix or any other services you use. Will anything happen? Worst case they kill your account or block the VPN access. They can do this by identifying the IP your VPN provider assigns as belonging to said VPN provider. It's not likely to happen, so I wouldn't worry though.

Given NetFlix's problems with the continuous erosion of content, pricing issues, I really hope they do not get pissy over someone accessing their paid account in such way. Then again, as a company, they really defy conventional wisdom thanks to that Hastings guy at the helm.

[zzm9980]

Your use of a VPN will likely violate the terms of service for Netflix or any other services you use. Will anything happen? Worst case they kill your account or block the VPN access. They can do this by identifying the IP your VPN provider assigns as belonging to said VPN provider. It's not likely to happen, so I wouldn't worry though.

Given NetFlix's problems with the continuous erosion of content, pricing issues, I really hope they do not get pissy over someone accessing their paid account in such way. Then again, as a company, they really defy conventional wisdom thanks to that Hastings guy at the helm.

Netflix probably doesn't care since you pay the same no matter what. But unfortunately they're likely under obligation from their content partners (HBO, Viacom, Disney, etc) to prevent access by 'unauthorized' users. Having familiarity with companies like this, what probably happens is that those studios and companies will send notice to Netflix along with blocks of IPs they've determined the VPN companies (or proxies, or anything else used to circumvent DRM) and ask NetFlix to block it. Netflix will make a half-assed effort to comply with the barest minimum that is requested of them.

[Sooner8]

But unfortunately they're likely under obligation from their content partners (HBO, Viacom, Disney, etc) to prevent access by 'unauthorized' users. Netflix will make a half-assed effort to comply with the barest minimum that is requested of them.

Thank you, I had not considered that and those are big tails that wag that dog. rats!!

[Sooner8]

Given the high costs of owning a car in SIN with Certificate of Entitlement (COE), Vehicle Quota System (VQS), road taxes and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP)), I am surprised this has not featured prominently in this thread. Especially, by folks who are expats from US.

Some of the comments have seen on the net make this to be a class issue. Rich get what they want at the expense of less well off.