Why do Environmental Testing for your Products ? Watch this Video.

 

Why do Environmental Testing for your Products ?  3 Reasons.

1. To enhance your product's quality.

2. To lengthen your product's reliability.

3. As a result your Brand will be boosted through good customer reviews and word of mouth engagement. 

Sudoku End Game Tactic 1 - Gwendolin's Thread

 

Here is one end game tactic which I use pretty successfully after correctly filling in 80% of the blank spaces in the 9 x 9 sudoku game. Its called Gwendolin's thread. Gwendolin was a little girl who went into the forest to pick some flowers. As she went deeper and deeper, she realised she was lost. 

Rather than panic, she used this tactic whereby she pulled out a spool of thread (OK, I know its far fetched, who goes into the forest with a string of thread, but you get my point right ? Its just a fairy tale !).

So she walks with the thread, ties one end at a random tree, and walks in the direction where she thought she came from. The moral of the story, if she came to another junction and there was a thread, she would quickly realise that she was walking in circles ! So she would backtrack and where there was no thread, she would then continue in the opposite direction until she made her way out of the forest. OK its just a fictional fairy tale but the concept is to use markers, and thread so that you know if you had made a wrong choice, you can BACKTRACK your move and try the opposite direction or use the alternate number.

For the Sudoku game, if the square is a 50 / 50 (50% either a certain number or the other), then I will use shortform LETTERS in place of numbers and play along.

So in the game above, I have about 18 unfilled squares, an then I can choose ar an unfilled square to use either (for example) a 9 or a 7. I would proceed with 9 and then write in that box the number N. This is the arbitrary number which I have taken as a 50 : 50. Each Uncertain Number I will put in the 50% chance of that number (a guess)  in LETTER format. 

Therefore 

1 : O

2 : D

3 : T

4 : F

5 : V

6 : X

7 : S

8 : E

9 : N.

Try it. If there happens to be to of the same letters on the same line or column you realise you have the wrong path (say 2 Os)  So I will backtrack and change ONLY THE LETTERS from when you started. The key is note down which square when you put in the first letter, and once you encounter a wrong path, backtrack and replace the letter with the other possible letter.

So, the rule of thumb should be, for me anyway, is when I have a 50 % chance it could either be the number One or 50% of the number Nine. 

I will start with using One, or O and play on. If I reach the end of the game with no duplicate, essentially I have WON the game. I will then replace the letters with the number and that is the end game.

if I reach a line where there is 2 of the same letters, I will backtrack to the first square where I put the O, and delete that, and add in the other possible number, say Nine or N.

If my earlier steps were all correct, that should lead me to the path of winning. 

This is called Gwendolin's Thread.

Enjoy your Sudoku readers ! 

Life is like a Sudoku Game

 

I have been playing Sudoko for close to 20 years now. In the blink of an eye, 20 years has elapsed and I still enjoy the stimulating challenge of a diabolical Sudoku, sometimes every day. 

First developed in Japan I believe in the mid 80s to help the bored salarymen and women who take the train rides from their hometown into Tokyo or another major city, this game helps develop and maintain cognitive abilities such as :

a) logic

b) deduction

c) good guesswork

d) Charlotte's thread

e) elimination

f) perseverance

In many ways, like today's game which I have just finished, Sudoku reminds me of life. Yours and Mine.

1. In many ways it can and does get complicated

2. You make mistakes and you mess up the game

3. You make mistakes, check back where you went wrong and continue

4. It gets too hard to finish and you abandon it

5. You fly through it

6. You muddle through it with a lot of perseverance, grit and bloody stuborness.

7. It gets messy (like above).

At the end you either 'win' and finish all the 81 squares with all the numbers represented in each box and every single row and column.

Or you lose, when you a) run out of time b) make some error and there are duplicate numbers along the same row or column.

Do play it ; I play this, mental maths, wordle (NY Times) and Spelling Bee. I am now learning 

a) Mahjong.

Life's learnings never ever stops. 

Why Test your Biomed and Biotech Products ? And Why send them to QRA International ?

 

Why QRA ?  

Let me state the reasons :

QUALITY 

The "Q" states Quality. Quality in our mission, our ethics, our people, our products, our services, our procedures and our prices. 

Customers come to QRA for Quality. High Quality. For our :

a) Consultancy - we have over 30 years of testing and equipment distribution expertise and know how to advise most of your issues regarding reliability testing, accelerated aging, shelf life testing. We offer them with respect, and with humility so that both parties, you the client and we the vendor can get maximum leverage on cooperating with each other. 

b) Services - we provide prompt, cost competitive, and reliable service to every client big or small. Yes, we do have limitations in our resources, but we are nimble and try our very hardest to accommodate to each and every enquiry from all everywhere in the world. No client is too small for us to ignore. Our commitment to serve you is in our corporate DNA.

c) Products - we source the world over and select only the best, based on our 30 odd years of seeking, auditing and providing quality, assured. 

d) Reliability -  a quality of the products over their entire lifespan. That is normally a 10 year commitment. 

RELIABLE 

"R" stands for Reliability. Customers can rely on us to provide the stated test services, our repair services, our products and our people can stand up and be counted upon. We show up when the chips are down, on the table and up. 

ASSURANCE

We assure you of nothing but the best from us. Our products, our services, our people and our pride in giving you the assurance that you can count on us every time and at any time. 

That is the WHY QRA answered. 

Goodbye to a Friend.

                                                   Real Heroes never wear capes, RIP Michael

                                                                  1962 - 2025

Today, I received sad news that a school aquaintence, Michael Poore, passed away. It was sad sad news, and it set many of my school mates reflecting on the happy times each of us had with him.

I wasn't close to him, but I had heard many good things about him, especially his care and love for the disenfranchised youngsters at Northlight School. He was a teacher there for the last 15 years or so, and through my close friends, I heard how he had to relearn and review his outlook on his teaching methods, as his charges all had major issues. He had previously worked some 20 years in the Food and Entertainment industry so moving to teaching at 45 years of age, was a major shift, a paradigm shift in mindset.

The students have troubled backgrounds, many come from broken homes, abusive family environment, or have one or both parents in jail.  The students may also be involved in gang activities, take opiods and have run afoul of the law.   As they are juveniles, the system normally tries to reintegrate them into society and one of the institutions which is offered is this school, Northlight School.

Michael taught in this school and he posted on one of the school's websites the challenges he had as a teacher, a mentor, and also as a friend. I read and reread his Magnus Opus or life's story encapsulated in 5 pages. I was very touched. Police were almost always sent to the school for major disciplinary issues and external serious cases. The kids were not your traditional neighbourhood ones, nor even the usual bullies.  

Michael never gave up on them, and continued to motivate them, even as he sought to provide leadership and instill values to their broken young lives.  

My good friend Ajit told me, that Michael when they were both in Primary school, whenever Ajit forgot to bring his lunchbox or hadn't been given pocket money, Michael would generously share half his lunch sandwiches with Ajit.

This is the measure of a man. A measure of a man, is valued  not by what he created, an empire, a huge pile of money, many assets etc. 

A measure of a man, is how many lives he touched, helped and influenced for the better.

Rest in Peace, Michael Poore. 

A true hero.

A Saint whom I am proud to be associated with.

Carpe Diem.

What will my (or yours) mindset be when I am 85 (and hopefully still alive) ?

Pause if you will this Sunday 21st Sept 2025. Think about where you are. Now you may be in the prime of your life, your earning capacity is the maximum, your health is well and under control, you have ample reserves in your bank account and assets. If you are in this place, well and good, but think what or where you will be physically and mentally say 20 to 25 years on. 

What would you need to do, to think that you have had a good life at 83 or 85 years of age ?

This set me thinking when I watched a Youtube video about a Brit who has lived in Singapore these last 20 years, his first Japanese wife passed on just 3 years into their marriage when they were both living in Singapore and he decided to stay on, even though he was burdened financially and emotionally with 2 young toddlers. Very tough on him and crucial decisions which he made and he is now on Youtube telling his life story and what would make his life meaningful.

I strongly believe that if I use my dilligence, talents, and relationships I can and will make a difference to the lives of people that matter to me. 

My immediate family, my extended family, my company, my close friends and then on further afield to my alma mater, my school and business associated friends and then so on and so forth.

If I have made an impact, then when I am  85, I will be relatively satisfied to myself that I mattered to some people who meant so much to me.

My mindset would then be preparing for my next stage, death. I am not very religious, but I believe that God exists and He should be guiding me as I move on in life.

My ties with my Alma Mater remain ever strong

 

L to R : Chew Ping Nan, Andrew Lee, Fong Kai Yew (front), S Thedasidas (back),Gurdeep Singh (Glasses), Yours Truly, Charles Tay (with Mahjong tile), M Chandrakanth, Yap Tzin Haen (Hat with  7  Glasses), Hong Heng Chow (Blue Hat) 

Yesterday I attended the St Andrew's Alumni Annual Dinner held at the School Hall. I graduated from secondary school many decades ago, yet when I meet my school and classmates, I am talking with them like we were still in Secondary 4 !

We swapped stories about who got into trouble with the principal and got caned, who was the top boy of the school (Dux), and who recently became gradfathers. The lovely flow of life.

No airs, no expectations and best of all no comparisons. Just being in the present and talking about the past. 

It was such a lovely and august dinner, many thanks to the managing committee and the Alumni President Terence Han and his team for making this a dinner and a get together to remember.

Up and On !!