China: Ready to give Hong Kong what it wants?

The election for a new Chief Executive, due in March 2012, will show the world how strict or obliging the Beijing government intends to be. If everything goes well, the next boss of Hong Kong will a popular choice for both the Chinese government and the Hong Kong public.

There is, however, limited choice. All signs point to Henry Tang as being Beijing's favourite, but events are not going so well for Tang at the moment.
He has lost some credibility with the Hong Kong public in recent times.

After Tang had an affair, the message from his wife was that she would 'stand by her man'. Mrs Tang's stance made her husband's infidelity almost forgivable in the public's eye, until accusations of an illegally constructed personal wine cellar arose. When questioned about it, Tang implied his wife was responsible for the misdeed.

If Henry Tang is no longer flavour of the month for Beijing, then who else could step into the shoes of Chief Executive and still do China's bidding?

According to the nomination table at the elections.gov.hk website, only two candidates have so far officially posted their intent to run for the post: favourite Henry Tang (TANG Ying-yen) and Albert Ho (HO Chun-yan).

Albert Ho is a popular character with the Hong Kong public, being the Chairman of the Democratic Party. However, it is the Election Committee members, not the public, who currently vote for the new Chief Executive.

Other possible strong contenders could be Leung Chun-ying, Regina Ip, and Jasper Tsang Yok-sing. If Henry Tang sinks in the sands of controversy, it is anyone's guess to whom Beijing's favour might fall.

This is where China needs to get it right. This is the last Chief Executive election before the 2017 deadline. That is the year Beijing has said Hong Kong will attain universal suffrage. It then all depends on who Beijing will allow to stand for election in future, rather than who can vote.

If the Chinese government use the 2012 election to gain the confidence of the Hong Kong public, future elections should be easier to manage. If they get it wrong, Hong Kong will continue to be suspicious of political dealings with Beijing.

ijargon articles: Google Is So Frustrating

Article about Google annoyances:

ijargon articles: Google Is So Frustrating: I sometimes wonder if Google is trying to alienate its users. If I use Internet Explorer to check something online, I am immediately greete...

I want articles for my site

I want articles for my site: Well written articles and web content are great ways to make money online, especially if you want to sell products from your site

How to Choose the Best Digital Camera

How to Choose the Best Digital Camera: New technology means it becomes increasingly difficult to choose a new digital camera. This article sets you on the right track.

Whoa. Two years later, in a different country and the blog is still active.
So I will take advantage of this space and tell you about a new site for Article writing.
It is:

http://www.ijargon.com/

and is for anyone who wants articles written for their blogs, their websites or even for business reports. Not only that, but ijargon.com can also visit your website and have a look over any pages that you think could benefit from a makeover in English. I have seen many great sites which have been written by someone for whom English is their second or even third language. I am really jealous of their level of fluency in English as a second language, but I can add that final polish to their site content to draw even more visitors in.
How about you? Do you need help, or new ideas?
If you are not sure, have a look at the questions and answers at:

http://www.ijargon.com/faq.html


Have fun!

How Fast is my Internet Connection?

My internet connection speed seems to fluctuate on a minute-by-minute basis, so I thought I would see what the actual throughput rate is.

A couple of years ago I used a great little freeware program called Connection Guard. It showed exactly the information that I wanted i.e. an updated number every few seconds of how fast my throughput was in kilobytes. I could see when my connection was running smoothly, and when it was playing silly-billies. Very useful information when you want to see whether it is the service provider or the website that is having problems.

Unfortunately, the Connection Guard program has not been updated by the programmer, and the available version will not run on Windows Vista.

That is a real pity for me.

So I looked online for an alternative.
I found one called Connection Monitor which I thought would perform the same task as Connection Guard. However, Connection Monitor only checks whether the link is live or not, by pinging Google every few seconds. Not what I wanted. After a couple of minutes, I uninstalled the program. Nothing wrong with it, just not what I was looking for.

So I continued looking for an alternative.

As I searched, it struck me how many programs assume that you want to speed up your connection, or speed up downloads and RAM and things. I don't want all that. I just want to know in plain numbers whether my line speed is running at a constant 1kbs or 45Kbs (I am obviously not connected through the fastest network so I don't expect too much).

So I kept searching.

I changed my keywords slightly and it now appeared that all the programs were offering a 'Speed Test', which simply uploads and downloads a known file from a known location and calculates the upload/download speeds.

Again, not what I want. A point-in-time result can be inaccurate and misleading. I want constant updates every few seconds for as long - or as short - as I want.

I searched again, downloaded a few programs, tried them and promptly uninstalled them.

Nothing seemed to satisfy.

Then I found BitMeter.
Yup, this'll do nicely. It has a different interface to what I have been used to, but it basically shows second by second the upload/download speed. It will even calibrate its graph to suit your particular connection speed, which is nice.

Then, as with buses, I suddenly came across another nice application: Net Meter.
Reassuringly, both programs show very similar throughput rates when they are both running, therefore it seems these are reliable programs.

So, at last I will be able to see exactly how slow my connection is. The next time I can't download something, I will have better information to forward to my service provider.

Design your website for your Customers, not for yourself

I was trying to access some information online to get my car serviced.
A very simple operation, you would think. Just get onto the internet and check for service centres in my area.

I wish it was that simple.

I logged onto the internet. Unfortunately, my connection is quite slow.
I went to http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com.ph and waited.
And waited...

The site eventually loaded its front page and I tried to navigate to its list of service centres.
I waited.
And I waited.

I was then confronted with a long list of service centres, which I wanted to copy and save as a list for future reference.

Fat chance.
The list was created with Adobe Flash.

So, even though I could look at the list and scroll through it slowly online, there was no way for me to get the information downloaded and printed onto paper to keep in my car.

So, Mitsubishi (and other car makers/dealers, I'm sure), please have pity on your poor Customers. We don't all have fast connections (especially since moving from Hong Kong to the Philippines), so we have to make do with what is available in our area. Help us by giving us a site we can use and in return we will be more likely to use your services.

Mind you, I did find a workaround:
I took a screenshot of the dealers' addresses and copied it to ABBYY FineReader. I ran it through the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and, voila, I was able to export the resulting text into a Word Document without any errors, ready for printing.
Great utility, ABBYY! Thanks for that!

DJ Earworm - United State of Pop 2008 (Viva La Pop) - Mashup of Top 25 Billboard Hits

This is a great mashup from a brilliant masher.
I have followed DJ Earworm for several years and thoroughly enjoyed his audio mashes.Now here is a video mashup of the "Top 25 Billboard Hits" for 2008.

Yes, he released this on 25 December 2008, so this isn't exactly breaking news, but I've been kinda busy with other things recently.

Here's the URL, in glorious Youtube High Quality:

Enjoy, and I hope it turns you onto other great mashes, both audio and video.

More great mashes at:

DJ Earworm
Dunproofin
BootieUSA

And Many More...

So Long, Hong Kong, and thanks for all the fish

That's its then. We're leaving Hong Kong.

I can't find a job in Hong Kong because I'm either too old, not local, wrong experience or a combination of various factors.

So we're wandering over to the Philippines to see what fortunes await us there.

We are just about fully packed now, the apartment looks bare (it's still not sold and its going to be a challenge to maintain the mortgage) and we'll be flying very soon.

Obviously there won't be any blog entries for a while until my PC catches up with us (it's travelling by sea with all the other stuff), but I hope to resume as soon as possible.

We're nervous but excited and we're treating it as an adventure and a challenge.

If anyone wants to rent or buy our Hong Kong apartment, just let me know.

OMG - Are We Forsaking You?

OMG. It's really annoying.

It seems to have become ingrained in our culture and language, especially with the teens and pre-teens.

OMG! The younger ones exclaim (using the phonetic Oh-Em-Gee!), either not realising that it actually means "Oh, My God!", or realising it but not wanting to incur the wrath of their grandparents.

I even heard it several times during a live broadcast of an awards ceremony, in its various forms of OMG, Oh my God, Oh my Gosh.

So I decided to see how the internet viewed and reported the phrase.

Good old Wikipedia. You can always rely on them to provide a good indicator of zeitgeist.

Here's what they have to say about OMG:

OMG may refer to:
Oh My God, a common abbreviation used in SMS and Instant Messaging
omg!, a celebrity news and gossip website run by Yahoo!
Object Management Group, the consortium responsible for CORBA architecture, Unified Modeling Language, and Model-driven architecture
Oh My Goddess!, a seinen manga series by Kosuke Fujishima
Olympiad of Misguided Geeks, a programming contest on The Daily WTF
Filename extension for the OpenMG file format
Old Man Gloom, a band originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico
Old Mutual Group, an international insurance company
OM Group, a chemistry firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, stock symbol NYSE:OMG
Operation Market Garden, an Allied plan in World War II
Operational manoeuvre group, A Soviet organisational maneuver warfare concept

But I notice there was nothing relating directly to religion.

So then I wiki'd (can wiki be used as a verb now?) for "Oh My God".

This time, the result was:

Oh My God may refer to:In music:Oh My God (band), an American indie rock band
Oh, My God! (Doug E. Fresh album)
"Oh My God" (Guns N' Roses song)
"Oh My God" (Ida Maria song)
"Oh My God" (Kaiser Chiefs song), notably covered by Mark Ronson, featuring Lily Allen
"Oh My God" (Michael Franti song)
"Oh My God" (A Tribe Called Quest song)
"Oh My God", a song by Jars of Clay from Good Monsters
"O My God", a song by The Police from Synchronicity

In other uses:
Oh! My God (2006 film), a South Korean film
Oh, My God (2008 film), an Indian film
Oh My God! (video game), an arcade puzzle game
Oh My Gods!, a webcomic
Oh-My-God particle, a particular case of an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray

Now, you will notice that even "In other uses" there is absolutely no mention about it being a short prayer or entreaty to the Almighty.

Has religion become so irrelevant or "Politically Incorrect" that there must be no mention of erm... you know... God... Jesus... And (shhh) other religious things like that?

That reminds me of an instance, a couple of decades ago, when I saw a priest being completely frustrated by something beyond his control so he stepped outside into the open air, threw up his arms to Heaven and shouted at the top of his voice , "Oh, my GOD!!" with a joyful expression on his face. It cheered us all up no end.

Anyway, back to the plot...

Wikipedia had nothing about religion within its OMG entries, so I tried their dictionary, the cleverly-named wiktionary. I looked up the phrase and alleluia! I found this entry:

Interjection
oh my God! or oh, my God!1. (offensive to some) Said in excitement, shock, awe, dismay, or supplication.

Hooray! One word. There it was. Supplication.

Maybe there is still a glowing ember of religion which has not completely burned out yet. Let's hope so, anyway.

P.S. Yes, I know that instead of ranting about it I could become a wiki editor and add the religious details. But then I think "Me? Become a wiki editor? OMG!"

Where am I, for MSN sake?

I was browsing the MSN home page and clicked on a search link. It was one that interested me - "who invented the internal combustion engine?"

After reading through the resulting link, I clicked on the "back" button to get back to MSN and...

I arrived at in.msn.com.

Notice the "in." part at the beginning of the address. At the top of the page, the title was "You are on the MSN India Home Page".

Well, thanks very much. But why, may I ask?

I was previously reading the MSN home page, which I assume is based in the United States; I was reading it from a computer which is based in Hong Kong; the computer is set to use British English settings. Nothing in that lot should even suggest that I need to surf the Indian site.

So, why MSN India?

I must admit that the page does look interesting: some nice photos of Bollywood actors and actresses (none of whom do I recognise - sorry!), some "candy". e.g. Guess The Celebrity Quiz, a column titled "Cricket and Sports" (India regards Cricket as much more than a mere sport) and many other interesting articles.

Maybe MSN is still thinking about the "Slumdog Millionaires" recent sweep of all the film awards, and they think that we should all look at the India site to see what else India has to offer.

Well, why not? But then maybe we should also be given the occasional peek at MSN Philippines , MSN Ireland or MSN Colombia to maintain a balanced outlook.

Kennedy, Vivaldi plus some old rocker in the background

There I was, enjoying listening to a wonderful recording of Nigel Kennedy and the Berliner Philharmoniker playing Vivaldi concerti (Vivaldi II) while I was surfing on the internet.

I suddenly became aware that what I was hearing was not what I remembered from the recording.

After a moment or two of trying to figure out where the dissonant tones were coming from, I realised that the website that I was looking at was actually playing some background music or other, with no visible method of turning that music off.

It completely threw me and ruined my enjoyment of Kennedy and Vivaldi.

Please, webmasters, have consideration for us surfers. Unless it is a radio site, or video site or recording label site, what is the point of putting music on your site? All it achieved is my hasty departure from that site to another, silent site.

I know the internet is a multimedia platform, but please let me make the choice of which particular media I want to experience at any given point.

Indiana Batman and The Adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine

I think amazon.com were grasping at very tenuous straws.

The online store sent me one of their regular newsletter emails, recommending two movies on DVD which they thought I might be interested in:

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "The Dark Knight".

Well, yes, they are absolutely right that those two movies do sound pretty darned good and I would definitely be interested in them.

But what I could not understand was the footnote in the e-mail.
It read:

We recommended the items above because you purchased or rated:
› Thomas & Friends: Classic Collection - Series 2 [DVD]
› Thomas & Friends: Classic Collection - Series 1 [DVD]
› Pingu - Pingu Forever [DVD]

For those of you who are not au fait with the above characters, I should explain that Thomas and Friends relates the adventures of old-fashioned steam trains on a fictitious island, while Pingu is about the capers of an errant young penguin.

Both Thomas and Pingu are animations for infants, so I don't really see the connection with Indiana Jones or The Batman.

Never mind, I've put those two movies on my "sometime-in-the-future" shopping list, so I guess Amazon's marketing methods are working.

Bon Jovi - A Vampire's Worst Enemy

Well that was an unexpected surprise, and a very nice one at that.

I happened to switch on the television and caught the opening credits of a film I had never seen and never even heard of before: John Carpenter's Vampires - Los Muertos.

I think this might be a sequel to the 1998 movie "John Carpenter's Vampires" and this time stars that venerable rocker John Bon Jovi.

Yes, Bon Jovi goes monster hunting and actually makes a surprisingly good job of it.

At the start, you keep thinking of Bon Jovi the singer, but after a short while, as testament to his acting, Bon Jovi becomes Derek Bliss the Vampire Slayer.

Not an all-star cast, but the actors were well cast in their respective roles; Arly Jover as the enigmatic and very tasty vampiress; Natasha Wagner as Bon Jovi's love-interest (albeit a bit too spaced out at times for the thrilling scenes); Cristián de la Fuente as a very hunky Father Rodrigo; big man Darius McCrary as the no-nonsense hunter and Diego Luna as Sancho the Mexican teenager who needs to become a man quickly if he is to survive.

A little weak to start, the tension and suspense build throughout the movie and throws in a couple of unexpected twists.

As with most things associated with John Carpenter, you can expect plenty of explicit and implied gore à la The Fog, The Thing, Christine etc.

If you get a chance, you should see this movie. Like me, you also might also be pleasantly surprised and thrilled.

One thing I need to comment on, though...Vampires must be pretty damned stupid:

There they were, living and vampiring in Mexico, one of the sunniest, brightest places on the planet and consequently having a great deal of trouble trying to stay in the shadows.

If I was a vampire, I'd high-tail it to somewhere like Scandinavia or Iceland for December and migrate to the Antarctic in July.

The sun is practically non-existent during those times in those places and there'd plenty of polar scientists to feed on.

Rapidshare not so rapid

A friend wanted to send me a home video, but the file was too large to send through e-mail. As he did not have anywhere to store it online, he uploaded it to Rapidshare and sent me the URL to download it.

It was a 50Mb video file, so I reckoned (from previous experience) that it should take no more than about 5 or 6 minutes to download.

Or so I thought.

The file started downloading with no problem, but I noticed the download speed was incredibly slow and it would take not 5 minutes, but 55 minutes to download.

After noticing that it had taken five minutes to download just a couple of megabytes, I decided to cancel the download and try again.

Unfortunately, Rapidshare then informed me that I had "reached the download limit for free-users" and I could "try again in about 14 minutes".

Darnit.

So I waited about 20 minutes.

I tried again.

Rapidshare then informed me:

The download session has expired. Please click here to start the download again.
Possible reasons:
The download takes to (sic) long to be saved.
For this download, in the background your Internet Service Provider has assigned a new IP address. If you are for example an AOL customer, or use a similar Service Provider, please try to use a different browser.

I have no idea what they are talking about, but I followed their advice to "click here to start the download again".

Hooray. The download started again.

Then it informed me that the transfer rate is 14.3Kb/s and the estimated time for the download to complete is another 56 minutes and 20 seconds.

Maybe next time I will just ask my friend to send me some photos.

Web Design for Dummies or Silliest Copywriting example for Dummies?

I saw some blurb on a website, advertising a book Web Design For Dummies, 2nd Edition and it struck me how silly the wording was.

The blurb read as follows:
How many times have you visited a Web site and thought that you could do a better job if only you had the knowledge and skills?

Now, one could equally ask, "How many times have you been to a piano recital and thought that you could do a better job if only you could play the piano".

Or maybe, "How many times have you watched a street juggler and thought that you could do a better job if only you knew how to juggle".

It actually reminds me of my father, when he used to joke, "If we had some ham, we could cook ham and eggs for dinner - if we had some eggs".

That just about sums it up.

I bet the book is really useful, though.

As a footnote, I see there is going to be a new "Dummies" book out titled Web Design All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

That one definitely looks very tasty and will be available from 11 May 2009.

VLC - there is such a thing as a free lunch

Excellent quality though it may be, Microsoft Windows Media Player (WMP) does have its shortcomings.

It cannot play all the formats of audio and video that are now freely available online, and it has a really annoying habit of wanting to 'phone home' (i.e. send information back to Microsoft) every time I use it.
So, for anything other than mainstream audio mp3 playing or video avi watching, I use other - independent - software.
My main two for video and audio are VLC (VideoLAN Client) Media Player and Media Player Classic, both of which are completely free to use (remember to check their licence agreements to see any restrictions of use).

Today, I was trying to play a video file with an flv extension. WMP cannot play it, so I always use VLC for these files. In this instance, however, not even VLC could play it. I have no idea why. Maybe I was playing a new version of flv which used a new codec. Who knows?

So I checked my version of VLC and noticed that it was version 0.8.6i and I wondered if there was a later version available. I went to the VideoLAN site and, sure enough, a newer version was available - 0.9.8a. It might not seem a big jump in version numbers, but it made all the difference.

I downloaded it - for free - installed it and was politely informed: "There is an older version of VLC on your system. Would you like to uninstall it before installing the new one?". I answered yes and the whole uninstall/install process went through smoothly in a matter of seconds.

I tried opening the awkward flv and hey, presto! it worked! No ifs, no buts, no mucking about, it just worked. I was also pleased to see that the User Interface had been updated in the new version and it now looks very smart with nice menu icons and fresh 'skin'.

That's how software should be. Free, no fuss, no advertisements, just doing its job in the best possible way.

You have to admire and applaud these dedicated guys and girls who genuinely do these things purely for the sake of their art and to help others.

You see, there really is such a thing as a free lunch if you know where to look. Just remember to say Thanks to the people providing the lunch.

Old details die hard when it comes to banking

I wanted to inform my bank of the change in my mobile phone number so I logged into their internet site and proceeded to change the details.

Unfortunately, when it came to saving the details, the bank procedure includes sending a message to my mobile to ensure it really is me changing the details.

Not a problem if you are changing your address or email details.

However, to confirm a change of a mobile phone number, the bank sends a security text message... to the mobile number which is in their records. Which in my case is the old mobile number, of course.

So it is actually impossible to change a mobile number online.

I had to traipse all the way to my nearest branch, go through the queuing process and make a request to the assistant behind the counter to change my number.

It was completed without fuss, but I could have done without the hassle of having to make a special journey just to change the mobile number.

Perhaps they could setup a special hotline number that Customers could call and retrieve a temporary code which must used within five minutes. That way, all the details can be changed online. So I sent them an email suggesting that.

Well, it's an idea anyway.

Hong Kong property price increase

I had a pleasant surprise, for a change.

I went online and had a look at the HSBC Property Valuation Tool to see how my apartment is faring.

A week or so ago, HSBC valued it at HKD2,770,000.

It is now actually valued at HKD2,800,000. Well, I am very pleased to see that the price has actually increased since last week. Not by much, but up is better than down.

Could this be an indicator that the property market has turned for the better, or perhaps at least stabilised?

I sincerely hope so.

Also, bearing in mind that the banks undervalue properties on their sites to safeguard themselves and their mortgage offerings (I read that somewhere recently, but don't take my word for it), my apartment should now be worth about HKD3,200,000.

So, if there is anyone who wants to buy my 641 square foot Hong Kong apartment while the price is still low, just send a message to me at this address: hawkphil (at) gmail (dot) com.

At the time of writing this, my selling price is HKD3.2 million, but this will probably go up as the market improves if no-one wants to buy now.

Here are a couple of pics of the apartment (when it had furniture in it).

Spell Checkers - because nobody's perfect

I don't know if it is audacity, innocence or arrogance that makes some people think they are immune or exempt from human error.

I noticed the following words in a forum thread that was discussing the usefulness of a spell checker when putting words online.

I donot use a spell checker and believe in my english while typing online...

... I tend to double check my spellings and my grammar, so I donot leave any bad impression o the reader.

No, of course not, my friend. No bad impressions at all.

Darwin Awards - will the real idiots please stand up

Someone sent me an email entitled "2008 DARWIN Awards", which listed ten particularly stupid types of people.

For example, there was a man who ID'd himself as a purse snatcher in a Police Line-up; another pointed a gun at himself and pulled the trigger to see why the gun was misfiring - but this time it worked properly; and so on.

There are some great stories in the email about some really stupid people. Unfortunately, according to that wonderful leveller of truth, Snopes, only one of the ten tales in the Darwin Awards is actually verifiably true.

I really don't care that I am being sent these stories - I love to read them, and I don't receive them too often.

What worries me a little is that people unquestioningly believe what they read on the internet, or receive through their email.

The people I receive these emails from are intelligent, responsible people who occupy senior positions in respected companies. Makes me wonder sometimes.

Hopefully, these people who forward these emails reserve their common-sense and professional judgement for their actual work and just let unimportant trivia pass through like a ship in the night.

We screwed up - let's blame the computer

I received an email from my web host, informing me that the SSL* certificate on one of my websites is about to expire and I should renew as soon as possible.

It's good to see that my service provider is being proactive. There are just a couple of problems with their message:

• The website that they told me about does not belong to me.
• I currently do not have any SSL certificates because I don't need them at the moment.

So I sent an email back to my provider, telling them (in a nice way, of course), that I think they have their wires crossed somewhere and please could they check their records.

Within a few hours, I received a very polite and well-scripted email from their Support-desk.

They acknowledged my email, admitted there was an error and they apologised. I like that. Efficient and honest.

Except, there was one additional thing in their response that caught my eye. Here is an excerpt from the email. See if you think the same as me.

We have received and reviewed your e-mail. We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused you. The e-mail that you received was sent to you by mistake. Since these e-mails are system generated, we cannot control or guarantee its accuracy for sending out promotional e-mails.

So what they are saying is sorry, yes there was an error and we hope you accept our apologies.
However, they also say, in the last sentence, that the emails are system generated and they have no control over what is sent out.

Huh? You mean the computers think for themselves and act independently?
I don't think so, somehow.

Having worked with computers for over 25 years, I know that the responsibility ultimately lays either with the programmer, admin or data input staff.

Someone somewhere along the line screwed up, albeit in a minor way, by allowing incorrect data to be emailed to me.

It's not a big deal; it didn't cause any loss of money or time or business or whatever.

All I ask is that people should acknowledge human error.

Don't blame the computers. That excuse went out the window decades ago, for Heaven's sake, along with such treasures as, "The cheque is in the post", "The traffic was bad" and "I've been up all night with an upset stomach".


*Not sure what SSL is? If you want to know more about SSL certificates, just have a quick look at these sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer
http://www.thawte.com/
http://www.verisign.com/

Joaquin Phoenix and David Letterman - Is he or isn't he?

It seems like the whole world is talking about the Joaquin Phoenix interview on The David Letterman Show aired on 11 February 2009.

There are some real arguments going on in some of the online forums - complete with swearing. Some say we are witnessing a nervous breakdown and Joaquin Phoenix needs help; others are screaming that his drug abuse is out of control and he needs help; yet others are saying it is all a publicity stunt for a fake documentary that he is doing, or maybe a new way to simply drum up interest in his latest movie.

My view (as if it makes a difference) is that if you watch closely, he is far too "sensibly" responsive and aware to be either having a breakdown or overdosing.

It seemed he was finding it hard to keep a straight face during some of Letterman's one-liners. He smiled appreciatively when the audience applauded their acknowledgement of his achievements and momentarily raised an eyebrow when Letterman gave him an unexpected compliment.

I think it's all a clever ploy to achieve the results that we are seeing now - to get the world talking about him.

I hope and pray to God that I am right. I would hate to see anything untoward happen to this very fine and talented actor.

Interestingly, there may also be an unintentional secondary result from all this chatter.

Many people are comparing the act to an appearance by Crispin Glover in 1987, also on the Letterman show. This means that many people are also now checking up on the "where is he now" details of Glover and, coincidentally, it turns out that he has a movie coming out next year (2010) - Alice in Wonderland. Directed by Tim Burton and including a host of amazing actors and actresses, I can't wait to see that one.

So, at least some good has come from Phoenix's unusual appearance on Letterman.

For anyone who has not yet seen the Phoenix/Letterman interview, here it is:

Dot Tel? - Do Tell Too!

It all seems to have gone quiet in the news and online about the dot tel offering since I wrote about it a few days ago.

Does that mean nobody is interested in registering their phone numbers online, or is everyone doing it secretly so that other registrants will not know about a particular domain name until it is too late?

They call this period the LandRush, but it seems to be either the SilentRush or the LazyAmble.

As far as I can see, most of the visible .tel sites currently viewable from Google (reportedly, about 543 at time of writing) are the ones linked from http://www.telnic.tel/

Telnic have a whole slew of .tel sites registered for their Management Team and staff, e.g
Khashayar Mahdavi
Henri Asseily
Justin Hayward
Carsten Schiefner
Lars Jensen
Benjamin Blumenthal
Fiona McKeown
Lawrence Conroy
Jim Reid
Gareth Jehu

It is a good thing they don't have too many people in their Management Team, otherwise they could have already registered all the first names from Aaron.tel to Zoe.tel before anyone else has a chance to do an "Ego-register" on their own name.

Just a thought: if a member of Telnic (for instance, Henri Asseily) decides to pursue other interests and leaves the company, would henri.tel go with him, or would Telnic need to hire another person named henri to match the site?

There is one other .tel site that I noticed, which belongs to Emma Davis. Her site is, of course, emma.tel and it gives all her personal details such as mobile number, address, occupation (Graphic Designer) and hobbies (Salsa Dancing).

But before you go rushing over to see Emma Davis, or phone her to invite her to Come Dancing, I think she might be a non-existent person that Telnic use in their promo video at http://www.telnic.org/individual-movie.html

I think it is pretty obvious who will be registering such names as in.tel and mat.tel but I also wonder who will snap up such catchy names as:

• be.tel - Nope, must be at least 3 characters
• car.tel
• chat.tel
• dot.tel
• hos.tel
• ho.tel - Nope, must be at least 3 characters
• lin.tel
• man.tel
• mo.tel - Nope, must be at least 3 characters
• musca.tel
• pas.tel

I mean, who.can.tel?

Goodbye Evesham Micros

I was very sorry to read about the demise of Evesham Micros (aka Evesham Technology Ltd) in The Register.

I purchased my very first PC from Evesham Micros back in the mid nineties (I was a ZX spectrum and Amiga user prior to that).

I remember I used to call it "The Beast". It was state-of-the-art at the time with a Pentium 133 - that's 133 Megahertz (no gigahertz in those days), a 1.6Gb hard drive and 32Mb RAM. Windows 95 was preloaded.

I loved it. I loaded all sorts of applications, games and whatnots on there. I learned a lot of programming skills on it using Delphi version one and C+.

It lasted me many years with no problems whatsoever, even surviving a trip halfway around the world when I moved from UK to HK.

Evesham actually had a very good reputation in those days for high quality PCs and great service.

Looking at recent reviews, it seems the company went downhill badly and lost their good reputation and ability to produce quality goods.

Nevertheless, it's a pity that they have gone. Their disappearance might not have any effect on the global PC market, but for me it marks the loss of a once-upon-a-time quality company.

Not many of those around these days, unfortunately.

Kindle 2 - sure to set your heart on fire

Now this is a lovely piece of kit.

The new Amazon Kindle 2, has been announced, people.


Thinner than a magazine, lighter than a paperback, it is capable of holding over 1500 books.


So, let's see... if we assume you are an avid reader getting through one book every three days, and reading every single day of the year, that's 1500 books x 3 days each = 4500 days worth of reading.


That's over 12 years of constant reading. Haha, I reckon Kindle 3 should be out well before that time!

While it may not seem to be a paperback replacement, it does everything a normal book does - except tear, curl at the edges, break the spine etc.


You can easily read it in an armchair, in bed, on a flight - wherever you like, really.


It does so much more than a paperback, as well. Some of the new features and enhancements include:

• Improved Display: Reads like real paper even in bright sunlight


• Longer Battery Life: Read for days without recharging


• Take your library with you; Kindle 2 can hold over 1,500 books


• Read-to-Me: Text-to-Speech feature means Kindle can read out loud to you in bed, or if you have sight impairment.

I would really like one of these. Kindle 2. Hmmm. Time to discuss with my wife, methinks.

Tsim Sha Tsui - good deals for you or for the salesmen?

A friend asked me to see if I could get a mobile phone at a reduced price for her.
She had seen one belonging to her friend and was impressed by the price-to-features value. It is a Nokia 2630 and her friend had paid about HK$500 a year or so ago. So it should be cheaper by now, right?

I visited several shops around Sham Shui Po (the computer parts capital of Hong Kong) and the price for me ranged from HK$650 to HK$780. More than I was expecting, to be honest.

So I went over to and Tsim Sha Tsui, which is well known as a tourist hot-spot for cheap electronic goods (and dodgy imports, if you are not careful), to see if I could fare any better there.

I found a shop that was willing to sell me a Nokia 2630 for HK$425 (after a lot of haggling).

The man behind the counter then casually asked me which country I came from. I told him where I originated from, but added that I have lived in Hong Kong for the past 10 years. “Ah, you live here. Do you speak any Cantonese?”. I answered in the affirmative in Cantonese and he laughed.

But his attitude changed, almost imperceptibly.

He seemed a little more guarded and then looked for lots of excuses why I should not buy the mobile phone. The one he was showing me was only a demo; the one “upstairs” in the stock room had a Chinese number pad; it also had a Chinese interface which I would not be able to change to English.

It seemed he wanted to tell me anything just to get rid of me. I left the shop without purchasing, and wondered what was wrong with the phone.

I can only guess that he wanted to sell it to some poor unsuspecting tourist who would take it back to their own country, only to find that it was not what it seemed to be. Maybe a fake copy? Maybe a refurbished or faulty returned unit? Who knows? Or maybe I’m just cynical.

All I know is that it has re-confirmed my feeling that I really need to stay away from the Nathan Road area and Tsim Sha Tsui in general if I am looking to buy something and not want to be mistaken for a gullible tourist with money to burn.

Lunar eclipse 9 February 2009

Well, that was something and nothing.

We found out about the Lunar eclipse this evening and thought we would like to see it. Not an easy thing to do if you live in the middle of a built up area in Hong Kong. Lots of tower blocks everywhere.

Fortunately, one of our nice neighbours invited us over to have a look from the roof above their penthouse apartment. We were so pleased about that and we took our binoculars and a couple of cameras.

We timed it so that we would be there for the greatest eclipse (i.e. at its greatest immersion in the penumbra) between 10:00pm and 11:00pm Hong Kong time (14:00-15:00 UTC/GMT).

When we reached the roof, there was our neighbour gazing up at the moon and they gave us a sort of shrug as we appeared.

I could see the reason for the shrug.

There was a beautiful clear view of the moon from the rooftop. And that’s it. As far as we could see, it looked just like the moon over Hong Kong on countless other nights.

Looking at the photos afterwards, there could have been a slight difference in the moon’s appearance, but not so as one would notice and say “Cor!”, or something equally intelligent. I think the shadow across one corner has something to do with it.

Oh well, at least we had a nice chat in the cool of the evening and it gave us a break from the normal routine for a few minutes.

For your delectation, here is a photo of the moon from that moment.

You might see something in it that we don’t. It was taken on a common-or-garden Casio digital camera, handheld pointing at the sky. We make no apologies for the quality – it simply serves as a memory snap for us to remind us of a pleasant evening.

1891 and all that

Is there anything you can't find on the internet these days? I mean sensible things, not the current address of bin laden or where did I lose my wallet. There is just so much info out there now.
To explain:
A rather amazing thing I noticed while I was surfing the internet. I somehow managed to find a reference to my Grandmother in a Census record dating back to 1891. My Grannie was five at the time.
It confirmed that she was living in Holbeton in Devon, England with her parents and three siblings.
Maybe I will dig a little deeper and see if I can find more of my family tree.

Blogger thinks I am Chinese

Blogger (or Blogspot, if you prefer) does this really weird and annoying thing.
It looks OK if I log into my Google account first and then go to Blogger. It shows everything in English, the way I would expect because all my computer settings are either set as British English or US English.
However, as soon as I log out from Google or my blog, I am suddenly confronted by a Chinese menu (and I don't mean like a Chinese Take-away offering chow mein and prawn crackers).

Have a look:




I wish Blogger had a little intelligence built into it so that if it sees that I blog in English and my computer settings are in English, it will return me to an English page instead of a Chinese page.

Reading Glasses - Cleaning and Maintenance

Reading glasses, spectacles, eyeglasses. Whatever you call them, there are many of us who need to use them as a part of our daily lives; those who are short-sighted, those who are long-sighted (me), people with astigmatism (me again) or eye defects.

Some people prefer to use contact lenses, but for the countless millions of others who choose to wear glasses, there is the ongoing quest to make sure that our glasses will last a long time and will not look as if the lenses have been dipped in a pan of cooking oil.

Cracked lenses, broken frames and the like should, of course, be taken to a professional optician who can perform proper and safe repairs. If it is something as simple as spotty or greasy lenses, you can, and should, tackle it yourself.

Be aware that, if the lenses are coated with anti-glare, tints or anti-scratch treatments, using non-approved glass cleaning lotions and potions can damage the coating. If your lenses are plain glass, however, it may be sufficient to use a general glass cleaner.

Always use a very soft clean cloth and check for embedded grit before using. The last thing you want is to put a huge scratch across your nice clean lenses.

I have seen people recommending using such things as newspaper, toothpaste and furniture polish to clean lenses, all of which seem a little extreme to me. I would not like to try to use those on my precious spectacles.

Sometimes, the best way is the simplest way, which is gently cleaning the glasses under running cold water. Do not use hot water because the adhesive which holds the lens in the frame may soften, resulting in the lens becoming loose or even falling out.

Gently rub the lens with a pre-cleaned finger and thumb under the cool water and then wipe dry with a soft clean glass-cleaning cloth. Cloths known as "MicroFiber" cleaning cloths are very good for this, but make sure that the cloth itself is clean and free from grit.

In this way, you can always be sure that you will have a clear view of the world around you.

Another advantage of clean glasses is that the part of you that people always notice first - your eyes - will be visible through bright, sparkling glass instead of through greasy, grimy streaks.

If you haven't done so yet today, go and clean your eyeglasses now!

Dot tel? Do Tell!

My web hosting provider Network Solutions sent me a sales letter today, informing me of the availability of the new .tel domains.

Urging me to register my preferred name, Network Solutions extolled the virtues of owning such a domain extension.

In their letter, they ask the pertinent question:

Why register a .tel? –

And they also give the pertinent answers to me:

• Create your permanent online business card
• Expand your ability to communicate and reach your customers
• Become accessible from any device connected to the Internet in just one click
• Compliment your current Web site with complete contact page
• Gain entry into a new global online directory
• Easy site updates that take effect in minutes
• Ensure your most important information is easily accessible and always up-to-date

But from what I understand, all those bullet points also pertain to my regular dotcom sites.
So, I still don't really see the point, except as yet another revenue stream for the domain registrars.

Why register a .tel? – Why indeed.

Toys R Us Hong Kong – Sending Mixed messages?

I visited Toys R Us Hong Kong today, looking for something for my little boy.

A couple of things I noticed while I was there:

Firstly, many items on display have big banners proclaiming "This is HOT!", to show they are popular.
But my reaction is, well, if it is hot, don't touch it.
That is the message we give to our children, isn't it? "Don't touch my coffee, sweetheart, it is HOT". "Stay away from the bonfire, son, it is HOT!".
So, like a good boy, I stayed away from the items marked as "HOT".

Secondly, I found something to buy for my son. Or so I thought.
The price on the item showed HKD149.90, but that price had been clearly and purposely crossed through.
Aha, I thought, this looks like it is on promotion or sale price.
There was no sticker to show the new price, so I asked a young assistant how much I need to pay.
He was very courteous and ran to the check-out to get the details.
He retuned a minute later and, with a polite smile said, "The price is HKD199.90".
Did I hear right?
So I repeated what he said: The price is ONE nine-nine??
Yup, I heard right.
Not sure why something is labelled as 149.90 then crossed through like a promotion, only to be sold for 33 percent more.
So I put the item back and left the shop.

Actually, while I think about it, here’s a third thing about Toys R Us Hong Kong (I mean the one in Taikoo Shing):
It really is a pain that a toy shop can only be accessed by escalator.
There is no access ramp and no elevator/lift into the shop.
There have been many times my wife and I have not visited the shop simply because we are pushing our sleeping son in a stroller.
The only apparent way for us to enter the shop is to carry our son, fold up the stroller and go up the escalator. I ain’t going to do that when the little guy is sleeping.

Sorry, Toys R Us, I really like your store and your products, but I really wonder if you are sending me and your other Customers the right message with your slightly strange ways.