RIP Sim Wong Hoo

[Lala81]

5 minutes ago, Tkseah said:

I think sound cards is no longer the focus for recent years.. they were rolling out more earphones, headphones, speakers and other products in recent years.  Just that this segment has tight competition from many competitors of diffent levels, hard to grab a big share..

portable audio via earphones/headphones is the way forward. 

Except for a small group of audiophiles, the younger generation will never bother with anything more than small BT speakers. Not easy, saturated market. 

What they could have been is what Razer did. Build from being a mouse accessory maker to being a relatively well known name in the PC/acessories game.

[inlinesix]

3 hours ago, Tkseah said:

Don't think audiophiles buys creative products.. Creative products sounds decent but not really audiophile standard..

I had Fostex portable DAC.  I will not compare Creative vs Fostex.

Different price points.

Maybe fiio vs creative.

[inlinesix]

3 hours ago, t0y0ta said:

My impression is that Apple headphones are the gold standard but they charge double of what competitors (Sony, BOSE) sell which can do 80-90%....

The price of all 3 product very close.

Airpod Pro2: $362

bose quietcomfort earbuds 2: $379

Sony WF-1000XM4: $383

Currently, I am using Sony XBA-300.  It is about $400.

Sony product is never cheap

[Stratovarius]

19 hours ago, Jellandross said:

Even tech guy may not have foresight 😂

 

oh, he's just crazy.

 

[Stratovarius]

5 hours ago, Tkseah said:

Don't think audiophiles buys creative products.. Creative products sounds decent but not really audiophile standard..

yeah. I've more Fiio and HK than Creative in my house. Only got one Creative speaker for my laptop. It sounds fine, But still a fair gap to the HK. And im not into critical listening or high end audiophile equipment. 

[Nav14]

@ER-3682 

They would have indicated if it was something as normal as Cancer or Heart Attack. 

[RadX]

Jus to show that incumbent is consistent w what they are… 

 

https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/lim-swee-say-pap-snubbed-sim-wong-hoo.6858041/

[Karoon]

8 hours ago, Benarsenal said:

Unlikely suicide.

They said it was sudden and 'peaceful' so most likely some sort of stroke or cardiac arrest. This kind of thing can happen to normal healthy people too.

he looked slim, weight in control... and certainly as a c-suite has all those platinum health screening packages... but if its time its time

[Estrangable]

19 hours ago, Davidklt said:

I recall once he had to retrench. He loan his own money to the staff affected and told them, they need not return it if they dont have the means.

Those were the days. IPC Computers bundled with creative sound card and external speakers.

wow IPC computers... that's so many donkey years ago. shd be early 90s. 

[Playtime]

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/creative-technology-was-the-pride-of-singapore-is-there-an-equivalent-today

 

In today's papers. 

Talked about how greatly govt and even Temasek supported local companies... but as an article supposedly about Creative, it COMPLETELY  avoided any mention of how Creative was rejected and Sim personally belittled by those very people now claiming credit for supporting local tech. 🤣🤣🤣🤣....🤨🤬

[Rayleigh]

9 minutes ago, Playtime said:

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/creative-technology-was-the-pride-of-singapore-is-there-an-equivalent-today

 

In today's papers. 

Talked about how greatly govt and even Temasek supported local companies... but as an article supposedly about Creative, it COMPLETELY  avoided any mention of how Creative was rejected and Sim personally belittled by those very people now claiming credit for supporting local tech. 🤣🤣🤣🤣....🤨🤬

Did they not venture into hard disk? Oops!!!!🤣🤣🤣

[BanCoe]

34 minutes ago, Playtime said:

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/creative-technology-was-the-pride-of-singapore-is-there-an-equivalent-today

 

In today's papers. 

Talked about how greatly govt and even Temasek supported local companies... but as an article supposedly about Creative, it COMPLETELY  avoided any mention of how Creative was rejected and Sim personally belittled by those very people now claiming credit for supporting local tech. 🤣🤣🤣🤣....🤨🤬

Seagate …… tot it was Guv darling Co oso ?? 

[Windwaver]

On 1/5/2023 at 3:20 PM, Fcw75 said:

Must make sure got no U-turn sign else bo pa ge.

https://mothership.sg/2023/01/creative-founder-sim-wong-hoo-nuts/

Creative founder Sim Wong Hoo famously said S'pore suffered from 'NUTS'. What did he mean?

In the early 2000s, Sim Wong Hoo was somewhat of a local legend.

His famous rags-to-riches story (or Bukit Panjang-to-Bukit Timah story, to be more precise) held Singapore spellbound. In 1992, he led Creative Technology to become the first Singapore company listed on Nasdaq; in 2000, at age 45, he became Singapore's youngest billionaire.

His passing on Jan. 5 spurred a series of tributes and comments waxing nostalgia about his legacy.

From his iconic Sound Blaster audio processing card, to his legendary David-meets-Goliath legal spat with Apple over Creative's music player patent (from which he emerged with a S$100 million settlement) — Sim's impact as one of Singapore's pioneer technopreneurs is undeniable.

The other 2000s epidemic

His impact was not limited to the tech sphere, however. Sim also famously coined the term, "No U-Turn Syndrome" (NUTS), which eventually made its mark as an indelible part of the Singaporean vocabulary.

It's a term you'd probably have heard of, if you were plugged into the local media landscape of the early 2000s.

But if not, here's a short explanation, as laid out in an excerpt from Sim's 1999 book, Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium:

 "NUTS is when you want to do something and you seek approval of a higher authority. When there is no rule saying that you can do such a thing, then the standard answer is NO...

In the US, when there is no sign on the road, it means that you can make a U-turn. When the authority do not want people to make U-turns, they will put up signs to tell you not to make U-turns.

In Singapore, it is the reverse. When there is no sign on the road, you are not allowed to make U-turns. When the authority allow you to make U-turns, then they will put up signs to give you that right."

This no U-turn culture, Sim argued, has permeated every level of the Singaporean mindset, creating "a way of life that is based on rules."

"When there is no rule, we cannot do anything," Sim wrote. "We become paralysed."

The rule-based system, initially conceptualised for a fledgling nation hoping to draw investments from overseas corporations, did exactly what it intended.

Multinational corporations promised a fleet of reliable workers got what they wanted; a newly independent Singapore, emerging from the chaos of war, shepherded into prosperity by a no-nonsense, ruthlessly efficient civil service.

But in a fast-changing, globalised world, the system had now become obsolete, Sim said.

"To meet the challenge of the new world, to meet the challenge of rising to a knowledge-based economy, we have to innovate like mad.

[But] innovate means to create things out of nothing, it means moving into uncharted territories where there are no rules.

How can you innovate when you have to get approval of somebody who looks at a rule-book first?"

In essence, from a system that brought Singapore wealth, NUTS had become a roadblock: to innovation, to creativity, to advancement.

NUTS in public conversation

The term took off.

It soon became a fixture in public conversation, targeted at everything from entrepreneurship to education. In particular, it was used as ammo against a civil service plagued with red tape.

NUTS even made its way into parliament. "Suddenly MPs going nuts over 'chaotic' wisdom of Mr Creative," one headline in The Straits Times proclaimed, after Members of Parliament (MPs) alluded to NUTS during a 2003 Budget debate.

One MP, Chew Heng Ching, cited NUTS in his argument about the inadequacy of the Budget's initiatives to promote entrepreneurship.

"Civil servants must not assume that the businessmen are out to cheat the system and exploit loopholes," he said.

"There is a need for a comprehensive review of internal policies that stymie business and entrepreneurs, so that the spirit of free enterprise can be enabled."

Another MP, Leong Horn Kee, put it more bluntly. "Our people and our children are too used to being led, guided and spoon-fed by the  government,"  he said in a call to boost entrepreneurship in Singapore.

"We have to break out of the old mould...I believe the government, being a caring parent, must learn how to 'let go'."

Separately, a 2007 ST forum letter blamed NUTS when local students lost a school debate to their international counterparts from the United World College.

"Sim Wong Hoo's theory of NUTS may be food for thought for our Ministry of Education officials as our schoolkids and civil servants have grown used to the entrenched culture of NUTS," the letter-writer asserted, criticising Singaporeans for their "unquestioning conformity to higher authorities".

The term even made its way into the Malaysian press.

Chaotic thoughts

In the decade since, Sim's public profile has largely faded, along with his once-pervasive acronym.

But it remains firmly entrenched in the Singaporean vocabulary, occasionally making a reappearance in the odd LinkedIn post or social commentary.

And the spirit of Sim's sage advice remains just as incisive today as it was in 1999 — whether in arguments concerning the abolition of exams, or the deferment of National Service (NS).

As Sim himself put it in Chaotic Thoughts:

"We are moving faster and faster into many uncharted territories, where there are no rules.

We do not want to be paralysed by waiting for the rule to be formulated before moving — it will be too late. We have to discard our NUTS mentality and learn to live in a new world where there are no clear rules.

Not that it will be a cowboy lawless land. There will be broad guiding principles such as common goals, objectives and basic integrity to follow.

The rest, we have to look at the big picture and decide what is the best way to do a job, to achieve our goals."

[Windwaver]

On 1/6/2023 at 9:28 AM, Jellandross said:

We have another famous tech inventor back in the days but has been going downhill since then 

 

This guy also famous 

[inlinesix]

 

[Playtime]

4 hours ago, BanCoe said:

Seagate …… tot it was Guv darling Co oso ?? 

Think that was still cheaper than FTX 🤔

[Freeder]

6 hours ago, Playtime said:

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/creative-technology-was-the-pride-of-singapore-is-there-an-equivalent-today

 

In today's papers. 

Talked about how greatly govt and even Temasek supported local companies... but as an article supposedly about Creative, it COMPLETELY  avoided any mention of how Creative was rejected and Sim personally belittled by those very people now claiming credit for supporting local tech. 🤣🤣🤣🤣....🤨🤬

The way they wayang with Schooling..

Really bth..

[Freeder]

22 hours ago, RadX said:

Jus to show that incumbent is consistent w what they are… 

 

https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/lim-swee-say-pap-snubbed-sim-wong-hoo.6858041/

This joker is a joke..
After so many missteps still can stay so long in G..Really shameless…

If kanna me, my company will ask me tabao myself ASAP..

Edited January 7, 2023 by Freeder