Exercise Equipment

Over the weekend, I did some DIY installation.

First, I installed a pull up bar which I purchased from AIBI. It cost $36 and the label shows a man grimacing as he does the pull up. I forgot to take a picture before I threw away the packaging. Anyway, it fits doors 61 to 88 cm wide. Would have been really useful if pull up is still part of IPPT. It's easy to install. http://www.aibi.com.sg

Turning in one direction will extend the length, press against the sides of the door and make the installation tighter. But if you are installing, do not install too tightly. When I first installed, I could not close the door. I realised that I had turned the bar too much, pressed against the door frame sides and somehow lowered the top portion of the door frame.

Edited December 18, 201510 yr by Ks Toh

Also bought and installed a bicycle rack from Howards Storage World. $59.99 but I read there is 20% discount this weekend for members (can join immediately). This might be suitable for those of you with bikes but no space to park them inside your house. Maybe you can install this at your yard or balcony area. http://www.hsw.com.sg

Instructions says maximum weight 30 kg. This means 2 bikes but not those really heavy ones that weigh more than 15 kg each.

Edited December 18, 201510 yr by Ks Toh

Previously also installed a TRX on my roof terrace. But have not used it for some time.

For more information on TRX, you can check out http://www.trxsingapore.com

On a related topic, if you prefer to do your exercise outside your house, and if you do not already know, you can sign up for Sports Singapore's ActiveSG membership. Download the app, and Sports Singapore will credit your account with $100. You can use the money to pay for admission to swimming pools, gyms or join programmes. I just used it to enter Bedok ActiveSG Gym the other day.

Or if your house is near a NParks Park Connector, that will be good. I am lucky that near my house is the connection between the Bedok PCN and East Coast PCN. I can run to either Bedok Reservoir or East Coast Parkway.

My sister told me this bottle from FairPrice supermarket works just as well.

I use this and it work well for me.

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

I have been thinking about this for some time, but was procrastinating. Finally, I moved my *** earlier this week and signed up with Hide My *** (HMA). Since, many of us are so reliant on internet these days to do all sorts of things, I will share some of the things I know. I am however not an expert on this.

VPNs serve many purposes. For corporations, it enables employees in remote locations to connect back to their office servers securely. For people like you and me, there are probably two main purposes.

First, it allows us to circumvent geographical restrictions and censorship, by spoofing our physical location. So, content that are available only in the US can be accessed if you choose a USA VPN server. The following are screenshots of my iPhone showing before/after VPN. You will see the VPN symbol come on at the top right corner.

Edited December 21, 201510 yr by Ks Toh

I did not do much research on the various VPN services available. I only checked up on Astrill (recommended on HWZ discussion referred by sarah833) and HMA (very popular and recommended by friend). In the end, I chose HMA primarily because although both offered 2 simultaneous access, HMA allows both access on any device (can be two notebooks as long as connected to different servers) but Astrill required 1 to be on PC/notebook while the 2nd to be on mobile. I thought the HMA arrangement was more flexible.

I signed up for 2 years at US$4.99 per month (Christmas offer). After installing the app/software, turning VPN on/off was as easy as turning on/off WiFI. I did not notice any significant decrease in speed but that has to be verified.

Secondly, VPN allows you to spoof your location so that it hides your actual identity and location. Some people might want to use a VPN is to avoid a situation like this:

Edited December 21, 201510 yr by Ks Toh

I will second for this brand. Works well for me.

My sister told me this bottle from FairPrice supermarket works just as well.

Hi KS

I signed up HMA after reading your post: ) the Christmas promotion is too good to be missed!

Need help! I installed HMA on my Sony phone, Sony tablet and Mac mini. Works fine on Sonys but not Mac mini. It kept saying safari can't find the server when I tried to access a random site to test. I am using wired connection for the Mac mini and tried connecting to hma servers in China, USA and Singapore.

Hi KS

I signed up HMA after reading your post: ) the Christmas promotion is too good to be missed!

Need help! I installed HMA on my Sony phone, Sony tablet and Mac mini. Works fine on Sonys but not Mac mini. It kept saying safari can't find the server when I tried to access a random site to test. I am using wired connection for the Mac mini and tried connecting to hma servers in China, USA and Singapore.

Oh dear, I don't use a Mac Mini so I have no idea. Can you try accessing without VPN some other known website which is working? Or restart the computer, turn on VPN first before you attempt to use your browser? Or have you exceeded the two simultaneous logins?

It worked when I turned off vpn, didn't try restarting the computer, will try when I am home tonight

I only had one active session when I tried to access from Mac mini

Does it work from your MacBook? It's the same OS

Yes, I am posting this while connected to HMA - Hong Kong, Wan Chai server. My MacBook Air is on OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.5. I just took the default HMA settings. Did not change anything. Maybe you can let me know the website and I try?

Hi the issue I facing is once i connect to hma, I can't go to any site. Tried Facebook, BBC, Netflix etc

I used default settings as well. Let me check the Mac OS version

Edited December 20, 201510 yr by sarah833