cake

A bought a cake to celebrate early b'day w/ dad this year. We got one from Mrs B in HKG. Let me tell you, the cakes from Mrs. B were wonderful. Queen of Macau shipped one from HKG to Macau in November for A's b'day.

The cake here was sesame and coconut. Quite lovely.

Yes, the cake cutting ceremony was in a hotel room. HK Disneyland hotel. The Boston gang was there for a 2-day visit. Mom and dad were resting so we came to do a small early b'day before leaving for PVG. Speaking of the Disneyland hotel there, expensive to stay. Everything costed money. You would figure if you were in the Presidential Suite, all things were free. Nope. The hotel wanted to charge for extra bed for children!!! OK, after putting the Boston gang into a room with cages outside (renovation), rather than upgrade. The hotel "offered" the Presidential Suite for 1/2 price. A 45-minute check-in time. A bit ridiculous. O yeah, we couldn't control the Suite's room temperature. I called for an engineer to check the thermostat, the reply was "you can't do it. We have to set it for you. Sorry, we had it set at 21C. I had re-adjusted to 23.5C". Still in Air Con mode. It's winter!!!! And the Suite was facing the ocean where the wind came in. Good thing I wasn't staying there.

And now speaking of staying, we were at the Skycity M.... next to the airport. Got a suite there, not presidential. It was small! And price did not reflect the space and cleanliness. Basically, it was a room and a 1/2 joined together. Yuck! I had to wipe down the coffee table in the sitting room!!! Still had food crumbs!!! I looked side way at the table, I could see all the dry marks from people's pretty "cup landings". H K hotels are ripping people off big time now. Gouge, Gouge, Gouge.

close

Thanks to the Queen of Macau, we stayed at Sofitel's Mansion for two days. Basically we had about 900 ft of living space w/ butler service. We looked straight into China. How close? From the water out, that's China! It's Zhuhai.

Next to our hotel, one could pick up a little ferry across to China. Total travel time, 8 minutes door to door. On the 4th picture, toward the right there was a blue roof top building, that was the border control for the crossing.

sun light

This type of row house was quite common in the old days in Macau. 40's 50's 60's.... I took this picture because the sun shone on it in late afternoon, reflecting the by-gone days of Portuguese yellow colour.

Taken from my 8M camera phone. Not bad.

sculptures

A and I were walking in an old Macau neighborhood when fishing was a major industry. We stumbled across these sculptures. Took a closer look. Plastic wraps. Pretty cool.

Interesting graffiti

We were bumping around Macau this morning not far from Pointe 16 hotel. Quite smart to have a Xmas message using all the big company logos. Recognize all of them?

Comfort food

A quick trip to the West Coast; boy, did I enjoy the food I had!  

Seattle not much as we were cooking from sun up till sun down for A's younger sister.  She just had a 3-week old baby.  8lb plus.  

Portland though, yummy!  We had real French bakery stuff at St Henri on 23rd Ave and Thurman.  Yummy.  Everything was yummy there!  Then we had a nice Vegan meal at Blossoming Lotus (http://blpdx.com/).  It was so yummy!!!!!  I will have to go back there again.  The Tempeh was seasoned and breaded wonderfully.  Grilled root vegetable with quinoa.  Wow.  The way we found this place in Portland is from Happycow.com; it's a vegetarian restaurant website.  Better than Yelp! 

Then my little "Chill out" in YVR on the way back to Shanghai.  The Fairmont Airport hotel had a very nice healthy menu.  I tried the vegan curry.  So nice and flavorful.  Of course, I had to have my vices.  Grabbed my iPad w/ my kindle book and headed to the lobby bar.  Nice Martini!  I ordered the James Bond concoction of something double and double - the Jet Setter, I think,  along with the chicken drumlettes.  Not exactly small.  More than a pound for sure.  I was in heaven.  No need to talk to anyone, just my book, my drink and my food.  Ah...   Back in the room later that nice, I ordered the mushroom risotto.  Man, it was good.  Hotel food!  I had many.  This one though, I was impressed.  

  

Hell ride

The state of our national airline - I am talking about the maple leaf one. The plane was larger and better when i started flying across the Pacific Ocean to the M0the r L@nd. 777 large comfortable and clean. Then... 767. Smaller... now dirtier! Worse than MU here! As I sat down on a highly priced premium seat, I was afraid to touch anything. Thick food and dust on every nooks and cranny. Do I want to lie flat sleeping under that kind of cleanliness ? I think NOT! My seat made creaking sound when I tried to recline. Loud. I was afraid to disturb the neighbours!

Tonight. Wow.. my flight was to depart Shanghai at 6:15pm. Checked in at 4:45pm. Flight delayed till 7:30pm due to schedule maintenance. How the heck you do that? O well... 7:15pm... 7:30pm... 8:00pm ..... 8:30pm.... 9:00pm... You got the picture. I was bad when I saw the plane was not connected to the bridge. Then I didn't see any crew. And the staff started handing out dinner vouchers. O no...

The ground staff, as typical Chinese one with "good" leadership skills, was pathetic! I could not blame them. After all, you only knew so much with what you got trained. Bad. I anticipated a problem if and when the crew showed up. There were some loud mouth pieces that instigate the mood. And bloody Canadians too! Shame on them.

We took off at 11:30pm or so. Then had to turn back and landed again in Shanghai. Nose landing gear could not retract. By then, some passengers wanted to get off. With that, we had to wait MUCH longer to locate the luggage and extract them. I believe we took off by 1:30pm or so. I slept. The food didn't entice me a bit. We had our "breakfast" at 7:15pm Vancouver time in flight. Right.... I just played around with it. B'fast congee or Omelette. Both were equally appetizing. I tried the congee. The chicken meat tasted "funny".

Compensation for the delay... 100RMB food voucher at Shanghai airport because I am an Elite member. Otherwise, 70RMB.

O yeah, speaking of Elite. Aeroplan sent me an email saying if I don't fly the Maple Leaf, I will lose all my points by May 1 next year. Nice loyalty program. Is that loyalty really?

longest email address

Just saw this on a Guangzhou TV station. This email address was used for people to report counterfeit bills to B@nk 0 f ch!n@. Do you think anyone will want to do that!!! The phone number was short: 5 digits. The email address has 76 characters!!! Check this out. It's I#M Lotus n0tes address? :-P

aftermath

This was not a show.  It did happened last night in Shanghai.  Just across the street from us.  Some contracted workers accidentally punctured a natural gas line just in front of JIA, a very posh 5-star hotel.  Now, the hotel will be closed indefinitely pending renovation.  

The fire was 5-stories high.  Took over an hour to put out.  

Pics were taken from a China online news website.  I have included the link for a complete story - in Chinese ;-)

http://sh.sina.com.cn/news/s/2011-09-23/0809196220.html

yummy

Snack time! We had fish balls, all sorts of veggies, cow organs, sausages, fish balls, tofu, squid, tofu, you name it.  All in this little stall.  

This type of food can be had for a snack, a dinner or just a dish if you take it home.  

The idea was drawn from some other Asian country I believed years ago.  Then it took on a life of its own.

With all the food why are people still so slim?   Well, you have to walk to around to find these places.  Cars? You just stuck in traffic.  

O yeah, found an authentic Vietnamese noodle house in Macau yesterday.  Man, it was good.  Nothing like the Vietnamese restaurants from Regina.  The owner here did everything just like in Vietnam.  The soup broth was authentic.  You can see a layer of good old oily substance from real ingredients.  Then the subs.  We have to pre-order it a day in advance as he made it just like in Vietnam with the French tradition.  Just a little hole in the wall.  One long bench for sitting - skinny people, about 8.  Mostly take outs.  And good thing was, only 3 minutes walk from our APT here in Macau or 5 minutes walk during rush hour traffic by "food". 

good book

Back to Commie land's "highspeed" access to WWW. So I turned to reading. Might as well as it will come in handy in the next few months or longer. Cancer is a funny thing. The book:

The Needs of the Dying, the 10th Edition by David Kessler.

Service

As I spent more time here in Macau and Hong Kong, the retail sector's service quality was just plain "LOW". The retail sector is totally catered to mainland Chinese - sucking their money while it last.

I was at HKG's IFC, a major Shopping and office complex connecting the Four Seasons Hotel and Hong Kong Station for the airport. I walked into Victoriox. Saw a nice linen travel shirt that I was looking for and wanted to try it on. Guess what the salesperson told me. "You have to put it over your shirt.". I said "What? My shirt is bigger than the one I want to try. How can I put it OVER?". The salesperson was taken aback didn't know what to say for 5 seconds. Dumbfounded. He then said "sorry we have no facility for you to try it on". Well, he had just lost a sale. There was no accommodation to clients. I would have thought of at least one solution, such as: "How about a deposit with your credit card? We apology for the shortcoming. There is a men's bathroom across the corridor that you can try it on. I'll watch your bags for you. If it doesn't fit, I can immediately cancel your deposit afterward."

Another incident. In M@c@u i was buying ginger flavored ice-cream for dad to east his Chemo. I walked into the ice-cream shop and said what I wanted. The staff looked into the freezer and said, "no ginger flavored; how about other kinds?". Ah... There was a whole tub in the display freezer of Ginger flavored Galeto. What did you mean? I kept asking if I can just buy in the display freezer, she said no. Cannot. She "actually" asked me how I could carry home? I said "what?". "You put it into your carry-away tub and take it home". Finally she said "we don't have carry-away tub". Soooo that was the problem. Ah, now I understood your purpose, concern and your circumstance. Dealing with locals and Chinese here in Macau and Hong Kong just make you scream - STUPID!!!!!!!!! So no carry-away tub, only cones. Well, you know what I would do next time? I will bring my own styroform tub w/ dry ice. Order 10 cones and just dump the ice-cream into my tub.

Same problem w/ another ice-cream shop. I believe in Macau, everyone wants to work in the casino for much higher monthly wage. Min 5000 MOP to start. Why bother working as a shop staff and get paid 2200 or so.

I believe people here are getting stupid by the seconds with the brain only pointing toward consumerism of LV, Prada, etc... The casino biz here had created a lot of jobs and revenue for the local gov't. These in turn had slotted people into a one-track mind of a future oblivion.

crowded

I took some pics on high grounds - some from 31st floor in Grand Lisboa Hotel and some from Macau Tower. Can someone really tell where China (Zhuhai) began? The answer: very hard to tell if you were not from Macau.

In all the centre of it was our apartment in the first pic.

The second pic just north of the water was Zhuhai; that was the beginning of China.

3rd pic, that was looking back at Macau from the Macau Tower.

4th pic was the second island composing the Macau area. Also, it was the home of the Sin City, Vegas-style strip aka Cotai Strip.

5th pic, a view overlooking Macau and Zhuhai from Macau Tower.

flying money

This was taking inside the men's washroom next to the French restaurant at Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau. As I was washing my hands, I just saw flying paper. Turned out were 1000HKD dollar bills flying around. Really. Only in Macau.

pics from Ireland

My ride 5-speed Manual A1. White house in the back was our stay in Ardmore.

Been a while

Yes, things have been hectic since arriving back in Asia w/ my parents.

With dad's n-stage cancer and my sis family visit, got my hands full. And yes, the Ireland/London trip... All happening in the first 3 weeks of August. O, don't forget the ever lasting Motherland silly month-end tax reporting I am forever bounded to.

Ireland was good. I got to drive a stick shift Audi A1. So cool. The car was responsive and nimble. Loved it! Ardmore was the seashore town we stayed for 3 days visiting Iron-wife's god-daughter. Lovely place and friendly people. Seafood was awesome - black sole. Huge portion... I couldn't finish anything off my plate. Brown bread w/ soups freshly made. So yummy and refreshing. We visited Waterford where all the finest crystal used to be made. OK lah. Then Lismore where castles still dominate some landscapes. The last 3 days w/ no Internet access around Ardmore, what a treat! Finally visited iron-wife best friend's grave, 3 years since she had passed away.

London, as old as things could be. And as idiosyncrasy as ever. 90 GBP from airport to hotel at the Bankside. The credit card machine did not work on the taxi. Needed to pay cash. Ouch. Internet. The hotel Internet sucked. Never worked. I had to use Orange French wireless to buy a pass for an hour. The rest of the time was the free Wi-Fi at a nice restaurant across the street called The Refinery. Yes, the hotel Mercure bankside. Called 3 different people and got 3 different answers how to get on the Internet. Finally someone showed up and gave us the complete picture. It has to be done through the TV. Still didn't work. I gave up.

Will post pics later on the trip. Frankly, I would skip London and get to Ireland. A crumbling empire. It's crumbled and long gone.

growing on me

The "And ro id" Phone from $ams0ng. Why did I type that way? Don't want my blog to be indexed.

This phone was thin and light. Yes, couple weeks ago I said the phone wasn't for me. I didn't lie. That was my first impression after couple days with it until I started searching for Apps and new keyboard for typing Chinese and English. The phone now is pretty much set for what I need to do. A very portable small computer. One of the best things was the rendering of Flash plug-in within a website. I could render any site. Apple did not allow Flash plug-in for its mobile platform Safari browser.

The other best thing? After USD40.00 a piece of syncing software was installed on my mac to sync my "And ro id" phone without that little white cord. You know what happen when the little cord kept getting unplugged... Wear and tear. I now could use bluetooth syncing. No cord.

And downloading podcasts, I didn't need the *Tune to do it and then use the white umbilical cord to sync. This took up room on my harddrive first and then the phone.

The "And ro id" phone gave me the freedom of "no string attached" to the computer. Truly mobile. OK, I still needed the charger but this phone came with two batteries.

Now, one thing have to be kept in mind. It is not more secure than Steve's phone. As a matter fact, it is less. Why? The market place is not vetted of Trojan viruses. Download and install at your own risk. I was doing some testing last night. Why would a new keyboard needed to access the Internet and access to my personal information/contacts? Makes no sense. If I were bbbbaaaaddddd.... I could do an amazing program and then do back channel to access information such as capturing visa number, passwords, etc... you name it. Not that it's not happening, it is. You just don't know it yet.

A smartphone has become such a convenient device that stores all sort of personal/private information at the finger tips. What a gold mind huh?

beg

Beggars...  They are getting ridiculous.  Sitting in front of our "KITCHEN" aggressively asking for money as customers walked out.  There were three.  The white hair guy sitting down.  The woman in strip shirts and blue sandals.  The a very young one sitting behind the flower pot left to the white hair guy.  

They didn't look malnourished. Pretty fit and plum.  The city's management would not do anything.  There was a cop car drove by and ignored the scene.  

These guys been in front of our "KITCHEN" since last Fall, almost daily.  

Our "KITCHEN", what I meant was our regular vegetarian restaurant just 5-min walk from our apartment.  

 

 

4 great Photos

Yes, I felt like I went back in time.  The first three photos were taken while I tried setting up the tax terminal, printer and computer for doing biz in motherland.  The last photo was the "secured" USB certificate device for my company banking needs in motherland.  

I felt being r!P ped 0fF spending close to 2K CAD for these equipments. I wasted 2 hours trying to adjust the printing of the invoices.  Well... #1, the alignment was wrong.  I had to use a pryer to yank out the metal stop so I can adjust the feeding track left and right.  After that, I spent 10 sheets of test invoices to do alignment.  In the end, couldn't.  #1, the printing had a bug in it I found out.  I had to close the tax program entirely before I can print another invoice.  Didn't matter that I do with the track adjustment for the paper feed, I still couldn't get the printing aligned at all!  Crap, crap crap!!!

According to a local friend, only the top part visible is OK.  The rest, didn't matter.  Gee....

While doing the printing adjustment, I had to deal with the constant W7 updates shutting down my computer.  Annoying to the Nth degree.  Yes, the computer language was in Chine$e only ;-) 

 

 

 

 

share

See this screen? It was made available to my mobile phone after inserting the Unic0m SIM card. I got 3G and I can pair it w/ a computer via Bluetooth as a wireless broadband router. This meant, I can surf the web anywhere in Motherland with the pairing.

Last month, I used it once because the motherland telecom was having such a bad connection that I had to use my mobile connecting to my computer to check email and IMs.

If I were to use the Samsung Galaxy S phone, I can make this sharing up to 5 devices. The poor battery and the data cost. Yikes.

proof read

Read the 3rd paragraph. I wonder if the translation was done by non-native English speaker. Perhaps the cost cutting went a bit too deep?

what a treat

Last day in Singapore. After a nice light protein filled b'fast, I was recharged. My destination was another hotel in the city. We could not obtain a 3rd night from M Hotel, full. From the Telecommunication conference. I managed getting a booking at the Regent Hotel, just off Orchard Road. It was a Four Seasons hotel.

I arrived shortly after 1pm. At the Receptionist desk, "sorry sir, we don't have your requested room with King size bed available; I upgraded you to a one-bedroom suite with 2 twin beds. They are big enough to have two people in one bed". Alright, whatever worked, I wasn't too fuzz about it. Man, what a room! Sorry, a suite. Too bed we only stayed for one night. I could have a family of four staying with room to spare. Nice....

After an afternoon of errands, I finally got a chance to lie on the couch to watch TV. News. Then by 5pm, I had to do the civilized thing - headed to the lounge on the 2nd floor for a drink or two. See pic here. It was happy hours - 2 for 1. And a complimentary small little burger - to soak up the alcohol. Notice my iPad. Yes, I was catching up to some iOS 4 programming book. Dry.. Just like my Martini. :-P

Iron-wife and I decided to have Italian at the hotel. The name: Basilico. Now, I highly recommended it!!! Yes, RECOMMENDED. The chef was from Italy. He knew his stuff. The restaurant was recommended by a friend of ours from Shanghai. He was a loyal Regent customer for the last 20 years. Long history.

Anyway, Basilico is a must for everyone to try in Singapore. Why? The menu was simple but the food was exactly what Italians eat. We only did the salad bar and dessert bar. The salad bar was SGD 27.00 while the dessert bar was SGD 15.00. The Salad bar was a feast! Green salads, squid salad, all sorts of Italian ham and sausages, the cheese... The kicker was the different types of flavoured honey. My flavourite was the truffle honey. Dripped it on my cheese. Wow...

Yes, anyone who came through Singapore and wanting to have a light classy Italian meal, Bacilico is a must in my opinion. Soooo good...

SIN b'fast

Traditional Singapore b'fast in the morning.

In the tray, I had a cup of strong coffee, toasts w/ butter and two poached eggs (a bit runny but that was the style). All for SGD 2.50 (CAD 1.98). Light and nutritious. Had all the major food groups I wanted: Caffeine, protein and carb. Good enough portion, not too big.

Then, if I want more energy for the day, I picked up a small slice of peanut butter sandwich. Real peanut butter. Not the Jiff kind. That was SGD 1.00 (CAD 0.79).

So there you have it.... b'fast from this morning was cheaper than the golden arches SGD4.00 of coffee, artery hardened hash brown and egg mc***fin. Or a cup of SB coffee.....

I have found a the Singapore local equivalent of SB's expresso. There was a food shop that served similar b'fast here. The coffee was stronger. Same size cup as my b'fast this morning. SGD 1.00. So yummy.....

leak

Wow, what a leak!  This was taken from a blogger in our beloved city of 20+ millions.  We are in the plum rain season or rather torrential downpour days....   See the water pouring in?  Well, that was inside a subway cart on the #3 line.  Scary huh?  In 2 years, we have over 12 lines.  Wonder what construction work there were!!!! 

O yeah, the subway prepared over 13 thousand sandbags for water pouring back into the subway entrances the last week.  

Wonder what it blames this time, weather, technical difficulties or "interesting" construction work.  

I best stay away from using the underground carts for a while.  Can you imagine the smell when trying to dry up in a not so dry condition?  Mole... And you can't really turn the air cond on as electric shots... 

More on Galaxy

When I got the phone in the box, I thought I was getting an iPhone 4. Both boxes looked identical. Tried opening the Samsung box, man I needed iron finger grips. Totally, vacuumed tight. After I managed opening it up, I was instantly stared back by a phone with a wrap looked exactly like the iPhone 4. Peeling through layers of packaging, I was having a deja vu - with the iPhone. Even down to the tab lifting the upper layer of packaging. Really! No wonder $@msung is being sued by fruity company. Shame on you!

Powered it up and the icons presented to me were "just like iPhone 4" down to the colours for the icons - Contacts, Messages and Call

I got two batteries from Samsung rather than one. Cool. The headset colour was black not white. The in-ear headset has only one side of plug: super large. Admittedly I am a big a$$ h0Le but this in-ear headset was BIGGER. Ha! I couldn't fit into my ears. There were no other fittings for the in-ear pieces.

Downloading apps, it was not from one place - Marketplace. It was "all over the map". Some in Marketplace while some within vendor websites.

I really do not want to flow my personal calendar on Google Calendar (security reasons) and then sync the events back down. Getting MIssing Sync to do the calendar syncing costs about USD40.00. No guarantee that things will sync properly.

The way for me to use this Android phone is: how much can I allow myself to "miss" from the phone calendar. That is being of value to me while I roam a town with calendar entries for dinner, lunch, show bookings etc. My initial purpose is having mobile phones as backup devices. That way, if computer is down I have a Smart backup device. I can still functioning just on a smaller screen. I think I will stick w/ the iPhones. I will be happier and less frustrated w/ "what were they thinking?".

Mobile Phones compared

As part of my pursue of knowing more about smartphone features for mobility, I picked up an Android phone by Samsung. It was a Galaxy S i1900. A similar spec device as iPhone 4.

I expected some learning curve and a little bit of "What the..", "Stupid", "What were these people thinking" reactions. Just need to remind myself, think NOT how iPhone works here.

My requirement were simple:

1) able to sync my contacts automatically
2) able to sync my calendar entries from my Apple's iCal automatically to the Android phone and to my iPhone
3) use my regular apps such as: Chinese-English translation, Skype, etc...
4) new apps using a 3G SIM card - Maps, "locate me", emails, "help me find..."
5) texting, prediction typing
6) able to use bluetooth to download pics and videos taken from the phone
7) subscribe and listen to my podcasts
8) ringtones

This is a big list. So I will chunk it up to several blog posts.

Start with the simplest one: Ringtones. The default ones came with the phone suck with all caps! Why? There's no normal tones. All in some "alien" music to me. I need to create my own or download from somewhere, copy it to the external micro-SD card and then load them to the phone. Great no problem. I can pair my MBA w/ the Galaxy no problem. The real issue comes that the MBA cannot see any of the files stored on the micro-SD card via Bluetooth. I need to take the card out of the phone, put it to a regular size SD card adapter and then insert it to the SD card slot of my MBA. O... look at that.. Everything shows up! Dumb!!!! Yes, Bluetooth pairing. It's BLUE in your face and you still not getting anywhere. Tooth, it gives you a toothache trying to get files out.... If I were to send a file from my MBA to the Galaxy phone, it worked but still not able to see the files in the Bluetooth file browser. Figure that out.

Contact syncing.... Yes, works great if you put all your Contact information to the "Cloud". That is, Google's online Cantact that is part of your Gmail. I am sure I want to do that as my Contact info also contains other personal information. Once "released" to the Cloud, anyone can get to it. And I don't care what the company said. So in order for me to transfer all my contacts over, from my MBA I need to export all of them as Vcards. Then Bluetooth paired the phone, copy this Vcard file over to the phone and then import them to the phone's Contact. Worked fine except my customized types could not be used. Now I have phone numbers labeled like "Singapore phone", "China phone", etc... are all labeled as "Home". Needless to say, a bit "What the F^*()..." happened.

Calendar syncing... With iPhone, I can use the cord came w/ connecting to the phone and the computer. Via iTune. That's safe as my own personal info goes from my computer to the phone through this little white wire. With Google, it's the Cloud baby. I need to sync it via 3G connection or Wi-Fi access from the phone. I enter my info either from the Google Calendar online or create a CalDev connection from my iCal. Why I am paranoid about syncing to the Cloud? Because the information is out there and someone can get to it. You are trusting the other side to make sure your information is private. You give away your privacy for a little of convenient. I don't. I take the paranoid approach. For me to sync then? From the iCal, I need to create double-entries for each event I want to appear on my iPhone and Android. One for the computer itself or syncing and one for the CalDev for Google Calendar. This is the absolute free way. Of course, I can buy Missing Sync to sync. But, I need to worry about the compatible version between this Missing Sync software and the Android phone's firmware version. I am tied to other people's capability for my needs. Restrictive... No way.

Now, how do you suppose a normal person just want to use the phone and the computer calendar and contact with different platforms feels? I don't know.

Subscribe and listen to my podcasts are easy. I went to the Android's Market place and downloaded a program called BeyondPodcast. Worked like a charm. The only problem... yes... Need to get a website from the web-browser to get to a podcast link. Or you can just type in the entire podcast URL to subscribe. Too techie......

Translation app, I still cannot find one that was as easy as my iPhone one. The search from the Android Market gives back lots of "garbage". If I can't find what I want in less than 30 seconds, I have no patient for it. And I consider it to be a a BIG zero for me.

Let say, I had to do a lot of Googling to find what I need to do with "normal" operations of a phone. Time consuming..... So far, my impression is: I am wasting time to get myself up and running on this Android platform. I can do better with only two iPhones. One for travel SIMs and one for my roaming China mobile. But that's not good either as the new iPhone 4 and beyond will have smaller and smaller SiM card sizes. My local SIMs from different countries are regular sizes..... Hence I was looking at phone options for travel.

O yeah, one annoying thing about this Android phone OR can be a good thing was: after the battery was removed and reattached to the phone, the Gmail passwords for all my various accounts were gone! I had to re-enter every single one of them. Was a non-documented feature. I have to remember too many little gritty things about this phone so I can use it. I should get a degree with it.

To lock this phone, there is no delay settings from the Galaxy or any other Android phones! iPhone has its so I can stay online before it locks itself. Android does not have this feature. Read an article last night that I can purchase an App to do that for about 2.99. "What the f&%*^(...".

The really good thing for this Android phone is it renders Adobe Flash straight from the web browser. I can look at any website online unlike the iPhone. And also the Maps and its "locate" feature using GPS. So convenient to be able to locate where I was and then say "find me this and that". That was so good.... so plugged in.

Typing... yes. I could only switch between two keyboards. I couldn't do English, pinyin Chinese and handwriting Chinese. Annoying.... And the keyboard switching option so stupid and dumb. I had to think reverse. When the option said "ENG", this meant I was in Chinese keyboard mode. When it said "中文", it meant I was in English mode. Huh? The Swype keyboard was the only one that could do English prediction word that I was aware of. Really! The Swype supposed to be convenient to type. Basically you swipe from letter to letter, the software will predict the word for you giving you a selection. Great idea. I had to learn how to do strokes so I can use it. And the prediction never work for me no matter if I clicked on the correct letter to start! O yeah, that's the only typing software English prediction was provided. Huh? If there were another one that had, I failed to find it anywhere.

Basically is down to this: Can I put up w/ the Geekiness vs userbility factor? So far, I am leaning toward the not my phone scenario until I see what changes come with the new iCloud. This fruity company is not known to have good Internet-based technology. And security wise is pretty p0000r. If new fruity devices force me to put all my personal stuff on the Cloud for "Convenience", I am switching. I might have to end up writing something for myself to use. ...... Wind0w$ m0---bile phones, what's that?

Future MFM

It's massive in the making. Not sure how this will pan out. A new transport link, an across Pearl Delta bridge will connect Macau, Hong Kong and China right at the mouth the Pearl River. The first pic is one of the three foundations being built for this bridge. The environmental study was "fast tracked". In double-quotes. This one is just next to the Macau ferry terminal and a bridge linking Macau to the Cotai Strip. The direction of the vehicles are heading toward Chinese border crossing at Gongbei, Zhuhai. Just think about the traffic jam coming in about 3 years with this new link. Ummm.... Casino revenues going up with so much easy access?

Second pic was a view from the Macau Ferry terminal waiting room looking out to Taipa. The third pic was a zoom from the same angle. Cotai Strip was just to the right edge of the pic where all major US Casino owners have their stakes.

All these pics were taken by a Samsung Galaxy S Android phone's 5M-pixels internal camera.

what a sight

I was on the roof of the Macau APT tonight with mom and dad. I realized what a monstrosity Hotel Grand Lisboa was! Look compared to the apartment complexes next to it. Can you image the residents of the apartments facing this thing at night? All the flashing neon lights in front of you! Yikes.

BTW, I took this with a Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone. It's a geek phone and I am growing to fond of it. Compared to the iPhone 4, I am "cord free"!!!! And it's half the thickness of the iPhone 4. And.... It's lighter! Much lighter!!!! Right now, I am getting all my emails on all the accounts there. I am downloading my podcasts directly from the webpage to the Beyond, a podcast player from this Samsung phone.

BTW, this phone is Android-based. It by Google. The OS is getting mature. Scary though is the packaging from inside out looked exactly like iPhone 4 packaging. Even the screen layout, the colour of the icons for each program.

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view

It meant to be a very nice pic; when I looked across, the sky was clear and the view was so sharp. Too bad the iPhone 3G S has a "crappy" sensor. The iPhone 4 would have taken very nice image for sure.

The bridge was the second bridge connecting Macau and the Cotai Strip. This bridge was just next to the Macau Ferry Terminal.

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done

Finally, we are ready for business! Why? I got the officially endorsed training required to do the tax reporting online and issuing official tax receipts.

Just want to share the location.

All Offici@l offices were so huge that they took up acres of valuable lands - no matter how poor a pr0 V!nce was. To do this important thing, here was the location. An industrial small complex with cheap big signs and printed characters on the wall announcing the training room. That's for ALL busine$$e$ on this side of the city. The other one was way out on an outer island where most taxi drivers were from.

The second picture with the back of the white van parked. To the right of it was where I picked up all my "goodies" to.

What an operation!

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A380

Saw this in Shanghai Pudong airport yesterday on my way out. Look, an A380!!! Wow... That many passengers between Emirates and Shanghai!!

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collection

I have to carry a keychain so to speak to manage every single account and sub-account with HSxC. And even within a company, I cannot manage anything that is NOT my name; that is a company credit card issued to another name. I have to get another fob issued to that person. Seriously.

Look at the site comparison too. The HxBC is just totally unorganized and in your face advertising with the red colour. And then you look at the SCB, so nice and calming. And the login panel was exactly where you are expected, top left corner where it is prominent. And I don't need to carry any FOB around. Account is tied in with your mobile number. Any transaction that needs to be done, an almost instant SMS with a one-time code is sent to the mobile. I enter it. Transaction through, done.

And the Summary for the account was the first thing I see once logged into the SCB site compared to HxBC that has more advertising and you have to hunt for the most important thing a user wants to know - how much do I have!

Switching is not far from me here I think.