$pending

It is an errand trip to get couple ongoing home-front projects done as
well as visiting mom and dad in MFM. It turned out, also a shopping
trip for me. Not really scheduled. I ended up getting myself one of
those high demand Steve's latest project. No not this month's but
last months. The price went up due to high demand! My dad's was HKG
300 less than mine! Of course, I got a cover with it. Now, it's
dad. I have to get a new one Friday in HKG on my way back to PVG.

Then I was so frustrated w/ the Nokia N97 I ended up getting a last
year's Steve model. Surprising the model spec I wanted, 16G, is all
gone.... only the 32G left with higher price. Agh.... In less than
an hour and a half.... HKG 10,000. Now the accessories for the phone.

When I prepped up the iPad, I loaded with Apps that I needed for
work. CAD 1.09 here and there and another CAD 9.99 or CAD 4.99... The
bill is racking up. Then all of a sudden I could not download the
videos from the Apple's WWDC10 held two weeks ago. It required a
membership of CAD 99.00 per year. I had to sign up for the learning I
am pursuing.... As of writing, I still could not get in! Same no
access message. I fired an email to the support; let see what kind of
respond I will get back. Last time about my mobile me renewal was
totally useless. I had to do things my way to get it sorted out. And
in order for me to pursue doing iPad developer, I need to upgrade.
All of a sudden I felt like I was in MS land. I need to upgrade my
operating system. Good thing it will only cost about CAD 20.00 per
licence.

I needed a replacement watch for sports such as running, swimming and
general outdoor activities... At least this is Casio's solar power
one. No battery required. This is the only DEAL I had! I spoke
Cantonese and the shop lady gave me a 50% discount. CAD 67.00. From
the Casio website, the same watch could be ordered for USD 130.00.

Now tonight... After iron-wife closed up her computer lib, left the
room and half-way in the subway to Rumi for Iranian food with a
friend, her IM mysterious signed back in! Active. So I texted her on
her mobile and said "almost at restaurant". So... logical
explanation, someone was in her room. I was not surprise as she was,
after all, in the capital city of commie land. And in a 5-star hotel
just next to Cisssss co which currently is having a little dispute
about turning over all it's proprietary encryption algorithms to
commie land in order to get gov't contracts. Of course, iron-wife was
not worry... I do! So I considered the her computer had been tempered
with. Potential spyware installed. Even though it's a Steve's
machine. So tomorrow, I will truck out to the you know what store and
get a replacement one. I will totally wipe the harddrive and replace
it with another one before cycling back into work. Me paranoid?
Perhaps. But why would her IM signed back in active mode when the
computer has the lid closed up and she was half way across town?
Believe it or not.

This afternoon after all those errands and shopping, I looked across the street. There was a very old woman sitting on the ground by herself with couple bags. She was playing with an empty beer can. Looking at her and compared to me. And the people just ignored her walking by. Umm.... What life.

attitude

This is the new attitude of the new age group in C h!n@. Take a look
at the the video. What happened was a young couple quarrel at a fair
in Shanghai. She slapped the BF 3 times in public....

http://sh.xinmin.cn/minsheng/2010/06/28/5459414.html

funny

This is ridiculous, all the Apple's iPad and accessories are coming
out of Shenzhen. My iPad case I ordered back on June 2 finally is on
its way to Regina. And I am sitting in bloody Shanghai. To rub it
in, all see the exact cases being sold all over Shanghai's IT malls
and in HK's as well. Now, I think why there are shipment delays.
Because all those destine to the right places have fallen off from the
back of the trucks and got picked up. Either that, there is a new
distribution network that Steve does not know about.

The iPad case is sold for CAD 45.00. Here, the starting price stars
at RMB 800 (CAD 120). And I came across a shop last week that was
willing to sell it at a bargain price of RMB 550 (CAD 84), final price.

Now we are not only paying Apple tax but also the "falling off the
back of the truck" tax. Welcome to Asia....

Another story; this happened to me on Saturday. We had two
Californian friends visiting. Took them to People's Park where
parents posting signs and resumes hoping to find a soul mate for their
children. We were wondering in the crowd. Stopping here and there
looking at the postings. At one point in time, I was a bit ahead of
our friends and iron-wife. All of a sudden, two middle aged women
tabbing on my shoulders. I ignored them for a while. Then when I
finally turned around, they sheepishly looked at me and ask " Are you
looking?". Ha! Before the question sunk in to me, iron-wife just
grabbed my arm really tight and spoke in perfect Chinese that I was
taken. We had a good laugh on that. I best avoid that park on
Saturdays. ;-)

The Bund

We were on the roof top of a restaurant yesterday called New Height.
Good view. Forget the food and drink though. It was about 4:30-ish
in the afternoon. Kinda dark and grim huh? Well, June plum rain
season. Heavy, humid and trying to rain but just couldn't make up the
mind. The first picture was the newly re-opened Bund on Puxi side. Pu
Xi meaning the West side of Huang Pu river. This renovation to the
river side took about 15 months. All for the Expos. If you zoom in,
in the upper part of the picture there are LOTS of people. Hence our
American visitors are gladly to be high above and look down. And to
look across the river to the East side of the river, Pu Dong.

Just muggy to walk around. Plus it was wall to wall people, bumping
you, skin to skin... Ugh.... It was a good hose down time after 6
hours out walking around.

plumbing 2

Take a look... This is the new Ionizer we bought to have better
water. And with better water, now we have more lines and more
plumbing tubes comparable to some dicy heart surgery. Funny part is,
it adapter leaks (upper right corner). Parts are not standardized.
Or Standardized to the particular manufacturer. O well... waiting for
a solution beside from not turning it on and a RMB 6,000 paper weight.

The guy installed it said our water area's water quality is not so
good because the discharged water flow is stronger than the filtered
one. Yeah, I notice the flow; exact opposite to the demo we saw in
Beijing in the store. So whatever the C0 mm ie official news saying
how healthy you can drink just from the tab - NOT...

plumbing

See all these lines, tabs and all... Welcome to the Chinese-style
plumbing. It just adds and adds... Does not really think much. Our
hot water tank bursted just above the washer. Now, trying to find the
shutoff switch. Not so easy. I have found it in between two tabs on
the right, after the fact.

Now the replacement. Since our place is a rental property, we need to
have the landlord to replace it. And because this is China, the first
impression is "how much". It wants to be made as cheap as possible.
I called the landlady and explained to her that if the tax receipt for
the purchase is within 4 years, we should be able to replace it for
free. Immediately hearing that, she's quite happy. And of course, I
explained to her that the tank bursted. I can't use a McGyver gum
solution to fit it. It's a complete replacement. We'll see how it
goes today....

upgraded

I upgraded my iPhone 3G S to the latest Steve wonder (no punt
intended) phone operating system. Take a look! I can group my Apps
into "folders". Not sure how useful this is though. Now I have to
remember where I put things vs. I know where it is as soon as I look
at the screen. I am getting old so maybe this is a way to keep my
brain sharp ;-)

Antenna

Haha.... Very funny with the new Apple phone's drop call problem. If
someone were to touch the side of the phone (aka the steel band) in a
particular way, it drops call. The steel band IS the antenna. It can
be affected... Hence, Apple has also rolled out a nice rubber band
case (with many nice brilliant colours) for USD 29.00. It was
presented during Steve's speech last week! This rubber band was to
protect the shinny steely antenna. Go get one. I think it must be
part of the design decision to boost revenue.

random thoughts

We saved SGD 500! It was from two months ago while we were in
Singapore. Iron-wife's Tissot watch had a problem with the the
mechanic hands for the analog movement. Digital display was fine.
Took to the Official service centre having a battery replace. I had
the same problem before and that was all it needed. After waiting for
30 minutes, the result was that the watch needed a complete internal
gear change. The cost quoted was SGD 500 and we had to leave the
watch for 3 months. Right.... I took the same watch to the Service
Centre here in Shanghai. 45 minutes, RMB 200 and a new battery, the
analog hands are moving in sync with the digital display part. Wow,
wonder what the Singaporean technician was looking at! A rip-off?
Yes, I did converse with the Shanghai Service Centre in Mandarin.

Just downloaded the Steve Job's 1 1/2 hour talk about Apple's new
technologies and all on HD. By invitation only; sorry people.... I
downloaded it overnight and watched it. Wow, he was so skinny. And
the belt on his pants, he was wearing it like most Chinese here...
Skinny and use the last hole on the belt with extra length sticking
out at the end. Bick would not have approved. Anyway, his company's
technologies delivered. It was so exciting to see. He dissected the
new phone and explained the internal workings... How half of the
steel strap on the outside was used to be antenna for bluetooth and
GSM and the other half on the other side of the phone was used for
other wireless and Wi-Fi protocols. I can see why this phone is so
amazing. But here's a thought: what happen to all those original
phone and the 3G that cannot handle the new operating system? Lots of
Chinese are still buying the 3G model over the weekend. I was in a
computer mall. Wait until they found out..... Man... Shanghainese
got angry... Bring out the pepper spray now. So how green is that to
dispose of these old, outdated phones? I myself now has a 3G phone
that has become a iPod Touch/paper-weight. Green? That's not really...

The other day, I bought a full set of ink cartridges for the printer.
The cost came to an eye popping RMB 680. OK, after the exchange rate
conversion still cheaper here. I bought 2 black and 5 other mandatory
colours in total. Need genuine parts. Well... That bag of ink was 3
months of our cleaning lady payment, twice a week with each time 4
hours.

waste of time

Bloody hell really. Who would have thought eCommerce is such a time
consuming and wasting task. Well, seem so today. Took me bloody an
hour to do 3 bookings with 3 different airlines.

1) Cathay... It's online payment is obvious sub-contracted to Sinopay,
an mainland online payment company. Well, CDN visa cards block them.
And when I tried to use it, I got warning all over the map. This yah
oo company mixed a HTTPS (secured transaction connection) with non-
secured ones all on the same page. Hello? So how the heck do I know
that the forms with all my personal data had transmitted securely via
the world wide web to the destination for payment. I did not know.
Talk about this airline losing out potential revenue. I sent a blunt
email to the airline what's wrong with its online payment system and
of course, no respond back.

2) United.... Thanks to the content screening to protect our citizens,
the site was slow to start off with. Then after putting in everything
single details about my trip and my credit card info... I was frozen
in the track!!! Why? I was in the "US version" website! I need to
be in the CDN version in order to buy a ticket. Hello? Where was
that indicator on the website? I failed to see it. If it were
there, might be buried along with all the ads and promotions..... How
did I notice it? It was when I tried putting in my CC billing
number. The country was "hard-coded" as United States. So I went all
the way back to select the CDN version of the site and started again.
20 minutes later, I got the bloody ticket! One-way!

3) Delta.... Geee..... Visa's secure verification system must be
having one hack of a problem. The airline website kept kicking it
back out with "your credit card could not be verified". HUH? I use
PayPal.. Got as far as "Pay" then the airline website said "Sorry,
your account does not have a US address". What? Since when PayPal is
only valid for US? This is a world-wide eCommerce system! What the
heck all these I T types were thinking? I banged away with two Visas
both rejected, then PayPal... Finally, I had to use a HK non-visa CC.
And that, I am not so sure how secure it was from HS*C. I wasted
another 20 minutes but seemed eternity.

All in all... My bloody pressure went up by miles... My eyes were
blood red seeing pink ready to rip some phantom I T idiots up for not
doing proper testings.... Ridiculous. The eCommerce was to make
business easier. My experience with all 3 airlines were totally
pathetic! Now, I am going to try the Maple Leaf one just for kicks.
No, I need to get my PVG-YVR & YYC-HKG done pronto before we head back
to the dark ages to buy tickets. Seems my Shanghai travel agent is
more reliable then anything else!

Cristal

That was the restaurant we went to last night with a biz partner from
CA, California that is.

It is just a stone throw away from our apartment. Less than 5-minute
walk. Here's a picture of the restaurant terrance. I would never
know it exists if I weren't aware of the signage and the advertising.
Cristal serves Mediterranean food. Good portion and price is right
(compared to other same class Western restaurant in town). There is a
5-course vegetarian menu for RMB 298. I was impressed. I had a
stuffed baby squids as a starter. Nice... stuffed with veggies. Then
my Cod as the main course. Good chunk of Cod cooked just right with
spinach, asparagus, green peas and some foam at the base. Not salty.
And my tongue did not taste like MSG this morning.

From the picture, the background apartment is part of the restaurant
complex. That is the Crystal Pavilion I was looking to buy into. Too
expensive. Next to the restaurant, on the same level, is the swimming
pool for the Crystal Pavilion club house. Guess the developer spares
no expense. The pool is nice! Open air and every night, club workers
put panes of glass back to close up the pool for indoor swimming. Wow.

The restaurant was very quiet last night. Quiet as in able to talk,
not noisy. We were in the heart of Nanjing Road but the noise were
all on the ground floor. The wind was cool, almost to the point of
chilly last night. But once we got down to the main floor, wind
stopped, stuffy and noisy. This place seems to be an oasis. Last
night the four of use spent a total of RMB 989. That was pretty much
half a month wage to an average worker. But if we were to head over
closer to the Bund and across the river, price would have gone up,
double the amount we paid. Actually I still couldn't get use of the
amount as generally, at our regular vegetarian restaurant, we paid
about RMB 105 for four to five dishes depending how exotic we wanted.

Mobile wallet

Finally, I start using it. Took a bit of a start. My original 100RMB
top up was gone after I unplugged my new SIM that has RFID function.
The top up value was lost. I did a recharge last week. Well....
Once I re-insert my SIM card, I had to my iPhone back to China Mobile
to reactivate the RFID portion. O yeah, once I top up my mobile
wallet (I thought I did) I took a try. Not so fast! I had to browse
thru the SIM application to the Mobile Wallet section the to select "
top up". After selecting the value I want to "top up" I then had to
enter my security password to "Officially" top up. Who the hell
thought of that sequence of process!

This RFID functioning SIM card can only be used at designated area. I
still have to carry my original Transport card in my pocket. You see,
this new SIM card does NOT work with taxis! Yes, it does not. I
tried. At subways, I had to look for "designated" toll booth to use
it. Ummm....

Tonight, I try to get this RFID SIM for iron-wife to use on this
little Nokia 6600i. This is a second phone for her to go running in
Century Park. It would have been so convenient. One device that fits
in the palm of her hand so she can 1) text me when to get b'fast
ready! Ha! 2) use it for pay for subway and 3) MP3 player while she
runs around the park. Ideal! Not quite. For starter, this "6600i"
model is not supported. Just tried about an hour ago in China Mobile
store. 6600s and 6600 are supported just the "i" model does not! So
Nokia what the hell did u do to this model? Bummer. This phone is so
nice. Small and light. With front and back camera. The front one is
for video chat in 3G mode and the back is a 5M pixel camera. Can't
have it all I guess. Might have to look for another one! Phone that
is! I hope not; have enough of that running around. Speaking of
phone, I think the N 0ki@ engine ers are on something... I tried
purging all the contact on the same screen but with a different
option, the phone prompted me for a security code. If I were on the
same screen, selected "Mark All" and the select "Delete". I removed
all my contacts with the security code. So how secure is that?

So I am seriously looking for a second phone to travel with. My
current iPhone that has the RFID SIM in cannot be removed or else I
lose my remaining top up value. The "No K i @" "N 97" model I
bought last year was flawed with the operating system. The Symbian
one.... What a waste of $ and time. Nothing consistent. Apps that
is. Seems they were all thrown together with different people with no
standard interface options. I really hating it. It freezes up once
in a while. Still have to get an iPhone 3G S. Have to see what the
price is as it should be around HKD 4,800 from last week's pre-iPhone
4 announcement of HKD 5,300, the 16G model. Even in Shanghai here,
has not dropped as much as I had hoped. Yesterday, it was still
asking RMB 5,200 from RMB 5,300.

O where was I about the Nokia 6600, right..... The entire process of
acquiring the RFID SIM at Ch!n@ M oB!l e has changed. Now, I pay RMB
120 for the new SIM card but I get RMB 10 back every month for the
next 12 months. Then I have to call a special number which I will get
charged for to activate the SIM's RFID function and to change the
password. Then only then I can come back to the store to do the "top
up" or use the online website for the same function. Right, I don't
think I use the online website. I just looked at the URL and it was
not the same as in the printed booklet 2 months ago. Now it got
redirected to something like sh.10086.cmpay.cn ... something like
that. And the Flash portion of the page had "Undefined" written all
over it. Some web designer... Then I looked closely to the Website
registration number which every Chinese registered website must show.
Well, it was not Beijing or Shanghia. Some other province that I am
not aware of ...

Technology/convenient with this country, always have a twist or turn
to satisfy some personal power or to benefit some "friends" or
"relatives".

I still carry my Transport card for taxi rides... and have to remember
to use my phone for subway toll.

silly

All these experts.... Now they are crying foul saying Steve had
"sneaked" an anti- m@lw@re update to the latest "an A**** a day, keeps
the doctor away" OS update. Duh! Wouldn't you want to keep quiet?
Sure, go tell the whole world that "hey, I patched this; now come and
get me with a new one.". I think NOT. Where are these guys getting
off by saying a Public Service announcement is required? It's
security stupid. You don't announce it to get attention to oneself.
All these experts saying about transparency and bringing up names of
current "mal wa r e " out there infecting machines. Not a smart
strategy except it is only a self serving marketing to give themselves
a name. That's all. It has nothing to protect the consumers in
general. Signnnnnnn......

john and mary

Easy to remember name huh? John and Mary owns a custom tailor shop in
the sprawling Fabric Market at South Bund here in Shanghai. And so we
went with a friend of ours.... I ordered a replica of my Sands shirt
and my Zegna linen black pants. The price including material and the
tailor for a total of RMB 300. Yes, RMB 300. And I have proof of my
order. Here you go! The materials were from books that were the same
as Maxwell (for those who ordered along with me in Regina would
remember).

This shop specializes in making shirts, pants and jackets. So if
quality is good, I'll order my replacement for raincoat and an
overcoat. Last I heard, the overcoat with cashmere with high quality
stitch work is about RMB 600. Lined.

Stay tune for an update at the end of this month when I pick up the
product.

Iron-wife took her fabric there to have a set made, jacket and skirt.
The cost came to RMB 200.00. Yes, 200.

Exchange rate: CAD 1 to RMB 6.686 today.

interesting

Interesting picture huh? This was taken from Lugu Lake in Sichuan
province. The reflection made a complete image of a buddha. This
image was taken by a blogger who traveled to this lake for a tour.

luxury

Now, this is getting a bit too too luxurious or smart whichever way
one looks at it. Converting a common gaming product largely available
at cheap stores is now a luxury item with its own LV case and all...
Wonder how much it is being sold for. I won't be surprise if there
are orders for the set already in homes of far flung "P@ rt y mem ber
$" and "0 ffic@l$".....

Check out the latest fashion in this country from the website address
embedded in the image..... we are not that backward here. Quite
advance in chasing the latest fashion "with a local twist". ;-)

normal?

Is this normal? Take a look at the following pictures. This happened
at a neighbourhood in Chengdu yesterday afternoon.

According to a supervisor of a nearby construction site, this is
NORMAL. Really? You have mud with water flooding up from
underground. What on earth is being done underground that had push
water up and cracked road. I am not an engineer. Anyone?

*images are taken from the "P eo ple's" website for demonstration
purpose.

b@nned

Haha, this is funny. Just came across an article from a UK version of
an IT magazine. It said the new U K gov't Communication ....
security group has b@nned all new ministers from using their existing
iPhone and must switched over to RIM. Yup, you got it. No i Phone.
This group said the only secured device is a RIM's you know what.
Funny was the M@c World magazine was questioning about this b@n as if
it should not be happening. Right.... Hey, have you heard that i
Phone is NOT secure? Even with the pin lock and the encrypted data,
we can use an up to date Ubuntu Linux to open the entire phone up just
like a harddrive? And it's all free stuff. A pple stuff is more
style and form then security. And that remote wipe function that A
pple said it is such a good feature to have... All I have to do as
soon as I got someone's phone is pop the SIM card. There, disabled.
Think! In short, i Phone is fun to have but don't have it lost. I
entirely agree with this sec urity B@n......

humid

Man, and I thought Macau and Hong Kong were gross last week. Humid,
hot, stifling muggy, hot (did I mentioned that?), heavy air, not
clear, brown.... Today, it was like that here in Shanghai. Gone was
the blue sky and dry cool day. Air cond was in full blast mode. Air
was kinda brown and heavy. And imagine, today, I had used two under
shirts, one linen short-sleeve, one Patgonia short-sleeve and one golf
shirt! All between 730am till 900pm.... O yeah, I threw in a bottle
of Chinese Standard size Budweiser beer (that was 600ml in volume). I
drank the entire bottle in one sitting! That was how desperate I was
trying to cool myself down!

I consider this is only the first sample of Summer to come. Funny, I
couldn't handle the heat? Ummm.....

my order

Ha! It is so funny. The iPad I ordered for in Regina two weeks ago is
finally shipped. Take a look where it originating from? Chances are
it is from that troubled electronic factory. Yes, it is being shipped
from the city that is only 60 miles from Macau where the future owner
couldn't wait and bought one last week! And I have to wait until it
ships all the way to Regina first. And for me to meet up with my
package and bring it back this way to use! Talk about convoluted.
It's sitting at the HKIA waiting to lift off for the flight to US for
clearance and then up north to Canada then finally to Regina. Wait,
can I save Apple $ from picking it up at the HKIA? Ha! Right.....

$add....

Iron-wife and I were walking in between two buildings in a skywalk at
Central, Hong Kong today. There were two Westerners talking real loud
behind us. And their subject, sadly to say, as if we couldn't
understand English was to device an excuse for their shitty investment
performance on their client's money. I meant "LOUD". "... We still
have 7% cash on hand... Right..... Our poor performance were due
to ... " Let's try to pitch it's not our fault of the poor portfolio
performance. These two guys, heavy American accent. Ummm....
Somewhere in Central, in one of the big buildings, some investors are
getting "screwed". And I think they knew it so these two yahoos were
trying to come up with an excuse.

Handbrake

Thanks goodness for this free Mac video conversion software. Now that
with the iPad, I have to copy all the videos captured every single
stage of the grandchildren to the iPad's vault. Well, it's no easy
task if a person has gone thru several digital cameras with different
competing video encodings like: MOV, AVI, H.263... etc... Anyway,
here's a bit of a kicker....

When I imported all the pictures and video clips from Chairman Lo's
digital camera's SD card to iPhoto, worked like a charm; we all could
view everything from still pictures to video clips. But syncing to
iPad only resulted in still pictures being synced. This was because
all the video clips were in AVI format. And iPad does not support this.

Now I have the enviable task of converting every single videos for the
last two years from AVI to MP4 using Handbrake. Good thing I can put
individual video clip conversion into a Queue and let them go one by
one. Then after the conversion process is done, I copy them to
iTune's Movie folder and from there, let iTune sync with the iPad.
Convoluted? Yes, I think so. I am hoping to find a simpler solution.
For now though, this works.

So if anyone who wants to use iPad to play a lot of video clips,
beware.....

iP@d usage

What familiar operating system. My iPhone and Chairman Lo's new
iPad. I guess $ize matter here. Ha! At the top right corner are the
pre-Steve "mobile" devices for various electronics around the
apartment. Now, we can all worship visionary $teve to consolidate all
these devices into the ones in the foreground. Hee hee...

First impression of the iPad is a "super-sized" iPod Touch. Sorry,
one cannot put it close to the ear to answer call. And at this
writing, Skype does not have an App for iPad yet. The icon and
everything else are the same as the iPhone and iPod Touch. iPad is
fast. On the side has a switch to lock the rotation to a position for
your liking. I had it locked at landscape mode. Multi-touch to zoom
in/out as well as "flipping throw" pages are a breeze.

There are lots of Apps for iPad already. Remember, make sure only
iPad Apps are for installed. O yeah, update the iTune to the latest
9.1.1. I managed to download lots of free Apps for the Co-Chairs. To
name a few Apps: Ex.com's foreign exchange service, Solitaire games,
Tic Tack Toe, Chalk board, Bloomberg, NYTimes... The only paid App was
Beejive. The reason, I don't want to have another service/App that
stores my Instant Messenger's username and password. What for?
Beejive is like Adium (free for Mac) linking to multiple Instant
Messenger Systems. Notice some of the App names here? They are
sharing this with the grandchildren. ;-)

This is a 16G Wi-Fi system. I have loaded up over 6,500 pictures and
only used about 1.2G. When I load them in via iTune, they were
optimized for iPad viewing. Yes, it's a nice picture frame with
rotating pictures.

I can see this can be my "additional" screen when I work. I have not
load any movies yet. Songs from the speaker sound good. No complains
there.

One thing for sure though, oil from fingers can make the screen looks
dirty. But when screen is turned on, didn't seem to bother the
display quality.

Battery seems to last longer once I turned off the Location Aware
option. When it was on, we could use the Google Map App to locate
where we were at, within about 200M or so. That maybe where the CO
for the ADSL was located.

I see this is a gaming, video and eBook tool. Of occasional checking
emails. That's about it. One handy thing is Chinese handwriting
recognition. This is a big selling point to the Co-Chairs.

iP@d shopping

Chairman Lo just couldn't wait for Steve's latest wonder to arrive at
the Apple retail re$eller $tores in MFM . $o the day before we headed
to HKG for some errands, he handed me some note$ and said "go get one
for mom". Yes, but what about the one I have ordered? "Well, use this
to learn so you can have the other one for work". Ummm... I work with
technology Chairman Lo :-) No need to "learn" from an enlarged
iPhone. Side effect of Chemo - impatient? Perhaps.

I walked thru couple shops in Wan Chai's Computer Mall (just on top of
Wan Chai's MRT stop, exit A4). Price varied. The further away from
the mall entrance, the lower the price. HKD 5900 to HKD 5200 for a
16G Wi-Fi only model. I might get a cheaper price somewhere else deep
in the heartland of Kowloon. That would be a waste of time and
potential had crazies throwing bottles of HCL to pedestrians. Yes,
HCL.... There are some nuts out there. Haven't caught them all yet.
Anyway... I finally settled to a shop for HKD 5200. Funny, that store
was the one I got Chairman Lo his netbook for Chairwoman Wong. Ha!
The final price came to HKD 5400. I got a 16G Wi-Fi model, a nice
cushion pouch/carrying-case and a screen protection film. What a nice
experience compared to the shop in Macau I was looking at.

That Macau shop, the people, I don't think they really want to do any
business. No customer relationship at all. When I entered the shop,
all were sitting behind a counter full of phones. They avoided eye
contacts. Hello? Then when I asked for the price, he said "It's
5,300" in a tone that translated to "it's expansive; you can't afford
it". O well.... I just couldn't "justify" it. I did it the "Hong
Kong way" ;-)

the 4th generation

Apple phone is out. Umm.... Now, how to recycle all those old
iPhones out there? The ones that cannot run the latest operating
system named iOS 4? I hope there are lots of places that can use
them? One peculiar spec on this new phone caught my eye - Micro SIM.
Yikes. We in rest of the world uses the regular size SIM. I myself
have a collection of them for different countries. If I were to get
this new phone, I am screwed. I can't use any of my SIM card. This I
can won't post a problem with the ever so skillful Chinese. A regular
SIM can be "trimmed" to fit. However, if that skill were not perfect
getting a replacement in China shall we say a little bit problematic.
I can see a "refusal" of replacement. Ah, but they are good at
putting a straight face and say "I lost my phone. Here's my ID card,
please give me a replacement SIM".

Having microSIM needs retooling of SIM manufacturing, I believe. I
don't see a potential sale of this phone in other part of the world
will drive a new standard in miniaturization. How many iPhone 3GS has
been sold just last year? Now with this nagging microSIM, how many
will be sold "under the table" to make it yet again a "card carrying
member" of the hip and cool Apple.

I played around with the latest Google's Android phone - HTC Desire.
O, it's a desire alright. Very sharp screen, multi-task, fast and
lots and lots of apps. And of course, about HKD 1200 cheaper than a
16G iPhone 3GS. I am contemplating about this. As my old iPhone
which is a 3G one, has obsolete. It's a good iPod Touch with games
loaded.

I think I'll be a card carrying member for the iPhone 3G[S] and a HTC
Desire. And that's it. I'll be done with Mobile devices. I do need
an all encompassing device (phone, podcast, contact list, calendar) in
Asia and its travel. Having two is plenty. Funny in Canada, I only
need a plain jane mobile phone just to text, dial and answer. Seems
to be a total different life style. After my North American visit, I
am now far behind in my podcasts, both IT technical and economic
updates.

AC back of the bus

2am flight is such a drag whichever way one looks at it when flying at
the back of the bus. Sore ass, lack of leg rooms tight ass seats,
lack of reclining.... I had one advantage on this 2am flight from YVR
to HKG. My Elite status enabled me to book 19C on the 77W
configuration. I had ample leg rooms. No seat in front, I could
extend. That was the bonus. I managed to sleep for about 4 hours out
of the 12 hours 35 minutes in flight. O yeah, we were late taking off
because we needed a pilot. Yes, you heard it right. A pilot!
Seriously, nowaday's aviation technology pretty much fly a plane by
itself, I think AC had gone ahead of itself in this department.

On this trans-pacific flight, we had individual entertainment system.
I managed to scroll and scroll and scroll searching for a movie to
watch. After much struggle and spying neighbour's TV screen I found
some. So for over 8 hours, I watched TV in a zoombie state. Don't
ask me what are the names, I could not remember if my life was
depending on it.

My row and the row in front were reserved for Elite status as well as
for people who could afford to pay CDN 3,000+ for full fare economy.
Hence I had a seat separating me from another passenger by the window.

Food wise. OK for whatever it worth. The main course was now in
sealed reheatable Walmart type entree. Smaller portion but I wasn't
too hungry to eat. In mid-flight, we were served this bun with a
piece of meat and a cup of instant noodle. I had half. Not much
flavour and I had enough of those cheap and cancer-inducing crap.

I asked for a napkin for my sandwich and the flight attendant told me
to use the one wrapped with my chopstick. Ha! How funny. Save a
piece of napkin to save cost? Ummmm.....

605am arrived HKG.

7:30am arrived at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry terminal. Service level
changed thanks to Queen of Macau's instruction. We were to put on the
8:45am ferry. This one was special. It was the Premier Jetfoil,
basically a Jetfoil retrofitted with all leather seats with extreme
upscaled fit and finish for the high rollers. On average, this ferry
had about 20 passengers on board. The ferry could take about 180
people. We were sitting at the top of the top class at the 8:45am
ferry. And served with real China with 3 different menus. All better
than AC!!!! We were offered: real scramble eggs Western b'fast,
Chinese stir-fried noodles or dim sums. Yes, all for an hour of ferry
ride. Well, at least we didn't have to worry about crowd or crappy
people talking loudly at the mobile or the 80db throat clearing sound
of "Welcome to China" greeting.

old school

The building in the middle, far background was my old kindergarden
school. I was there until I was 10 or so. The name of the school in
Chinese was on the right. It hasn't changed much since I was there
last over 30 some odd years ago. Still the same.

Photo taken NOT from an iPhone but just a cheap Nokia 6600i slider
with 5M pixels camera. My traveling phone.

The saga continued

After I finally got my $ back from HSBC Premier service on it auto-pay
fiasco, another one! Could it be? I think this bank probably has
little people sitting at the other end of the web server waiting for
print outs to do transfer and all. 2 days ago, I did a transfer
(Canadian sunshine time and HKG sleeping time). My transfer was
blocked. I switched to "next day transfer". No problem with a
"Pending confirmation" status. Last night, I got a call all the day
from HK. From the bank's CC department demanding $. Worse part was,
I had to switch over to Cantonese as the lady did not understand
English! My transfer never materialized. I searched everywhere
online in my account. There was no hint of my transfer two days ago;
good thing I still have a copy of the transfer confirmation! Scary....