I know as well as anyone else the adage "you get what you pay for", so I really don't expect chocolate on my pillow when I stay in a budget hotel, unlike that time when I was in Nikko Saigon when I strolled into my palatial room to discover a delicious piece of white chocolate nested comfortably on each pillow of the two beds in my room... but here I digress. Anyway so yes, we pay for what we get.
Recently I have been assigned to some dreadful place distant from civilization; a small town near Melaka, so this gave me vast firsthand experience with second and third rate hotels. Yet about these hotels there is one aspect that irks me like no other - NO WIFI.
When I was traveling in the United States, even the crummiest motel had wifi in their rooms, and it was pretty fast too - fast enough for me to stream Youtube. Even some not too high grade hotels in Melaka had it too in the rooms, which really makes my stay much more comfortable, as I can then clear some emails and surf the net a bit after my dinner and bath, then go to sleep in the secure knowledge that my night was both somewhat productive and not too boring.
But currently I am in the reasonably renowned A Famosa resort and there is just no wifi in the rooms, only in the lobby. What makes things worse is that there is no table of a suitable height with a plug nearby except for an unused reception table facing the entrance, which I am now sitting at. Although this is tolerable in terms of comfort, it is really lacking in terms of dignity. What if other guests were to think I was some sort of poorly dressed receptionist?
Even worse, the net has now conked out. So I had lugged my laptop and cable out in vain. Now I am typing this using my phone hotspot with great disdain for this travesty of a hotel, and feeling a great deal of nostalgia for Hilton Tokyo.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Sympathy
Planes are falling like flies lately. MH370 was lost to the watery deep, MH17 met a fiery end and today another Taiwanese plane was crushed by stormy weather. The whole world is a bit more sullen today.
The question is, why do we feel such sympathy when planes go down? After all tens of thousands of people die every day in the poor countries, from starvation and disease and war. These corpses dwarf those that perish in the skies by far.
I suppose the reason is that we simply cannot identify with them - these people are just fundamentally different from our middle-class existence, unlike air travelers who could be you or me or a family member. The more someone is like us, the more we sympathize with them. That is why terrorist attacks shock us so much, as people who were a moment ago enjoying their comfortable urban existence are suddenly injured or dead, to their great surprise. People who die in war zones, well it is a tragedy, but that is somehow only to be expected, right?
A ton of people doing research on AIDS died on MH17. I could not help but think that if someone who suffered from AIDS was on board too, many would feel far more sympathy for his death than if it had been from the disease, because "AIDS wouldn't happen to me, only to druggies/gays". That's just human nature.
The question is, why do we feel such sympathy when planes go down? After all tens of thousands of people die every day in the poor countries, from starvation and disease and war. These corpses dwarf those that perish in the skies by far.
I suppose the reason is that we simply cannot identify with them - these people are just fundamentally different from our middle-class existence, unlike air travelers who could be you or me or a family member. The more someone is like us, the more we sympathize with them. That is why terrorist attacks shock us so much, as people who were a moment ago enjoying their comfortable urban existence are suddenly injured or dead, to their great surprise. People who die in war zones, well it is a tragedy, but that is somehow only to be expected, right?
A ton of people doing research on AIDS died on MH17. I could not help but think that if someone who suffered from AIDS was on board too, many would feel far more sympathy for his death than if it had been from the disease, because "AIDS wouldn't happen to me, only to druggies/gays". That's just human nature.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
The next stage in the evolution of handphones
The interesting thing about the progress of handphones is the growth curve in size. A long long time back the standard handphone was this rather enormous thing, rectangular and thick, made of solid black plastic with huge buttons and a prominent antenna on the top. This slowly shrank down to the still solid but smaller Nokia 3310, the venerable dreadnought of the phone world, with toughness comparable to Wolverine's claws. It then got even smaller, before swinging up the opposite way and becoming rather large - if you've seen one of those Samsung Galaxy whatevers you will know they can really double as a table tennis racket. So what is the next stage in handphone evolution?
Some have bet that it will trend back down in size, giving us the Samsung Gear, a wearable smartwatch. Others have chosen to continue increasing it in size, as we can see from the inexorable growing iPhones. I, on the other hand, believe that the next paradigm leap in phones should be the ability to impose its power on the surroundings. Imagine a phone capable of projection:
You could use it to watch Godzilla, unhampered by the size of the screen. Another use for it would be to send a signal to the skies in a crowded area to summon your friends to gather:
I firmly believe that this would add vastly to user experience, thus cementing the next step of progress for humanity's usage of small electronic devices.
Some have bet that it will trend back down in size, giving us the Samsung Gear, a wearable smartwatch. Others have chosen to continue increasing it in size, as we can see from the inexorable growing iPhones. I, on the other hand, believe that the next paradigm leap in phones should be the ability to impose its power on the surroundings. Imagine a phone capable of projection:
On the difficulties of falling asleep
All my life I have been plagued by an inability to fall asleep when I should be doing so, coupled with a great ability to fall asleep when I should not be doing so. This has caused me numerous vexations over the years. Why when I was once in a small and stuffy room attending a long and boring meeting I nearly fell asleep while standing, which would have caused me to fall on my manager and disrupt the whole proceedings. Luckily I only leaned forward 10 degrees or so before I corrected my fall, but it was a rather close shave indeed. No matter, if I had really fallen I would just pretend that I had fainted, then everyone would take pity on me and rush me to hospital.
But this deficiency can still be corrected by willpower; the truly frustrating one is the former. When I want to sleep at night, and do feel very tired, often I am just unable to enter a state of blissful sleep. Now after careful recollection, I remember that during college I could always sleep well, largely due to the fact that I never had anything important that I had to wake up for.
The funny thing is that when I don't HAVE to wake up at a fixed time, I can sleep easily due to a complete lack of stress. The trouble arises when I know I have to wake up for something such as work - then it becomes rather difficult to fall asleep as I keep thinking "oh I have to sleep" which produces a rather contradictory effect. This is very annoying.
When I was flying overseas for a business trip, on the way out I had to fly overnight, so I kept trying to sleep so that I would be rested for work in the morning. Needless to say this effort was unproductive and I had a very sleepy day. On the other hand when I fly back through Saturday afternoon I could fall asleep without trying hard, as I did not HAVE to sleep. Such is life.
I once read that dolphins can operate the two hemispheres of their brains independently, so that when one side is sleeping the other can control the body. Oh for such a skill I would be willing to pay dearly, as most of the time I can get along with half a brain anyway. Especially in meetings.
But this deficiency can still be corrected by willpower; the truly frustrating one is the former. When I want to sleep at night, and do feel very tired, often I am just unable to enter a state of blissful sleep. Now after careful recollection, I remember that during college I could always sleep well, largely due to the fact that I never had anything important that I had to wake up for.
The funny thing is that when I don't HAVE to wake up at a fixed time, I can sleep easily due to a complete lack of stress. The trouble arises when I know I have to wake up for something such as work - then it becomes rather difficult to fall asleep as I keep thinking "oh I have to sleep" which produces a rather contradictory effect. This is very annoying.
When I was flying overseas for a business trip, on the way out I had to fly overnight, so I kept trying to sleep so that I would be rested for work in the morning. Needless to say this effort was unproductive and I had a very sleepy day. On the other hand when I fly back through Saturday afternoon I could fall asleep without trying hard, as I did not HAVE to sleep. Such is life.
I once read that dolphins can operate the two hemispheres of their brains independently, so that when one side is sleeping the other can control the body. Oh for such a skill I would be willing to pay dearly, as most of the time I can get along with half a brain anyway. Especially in meetings.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Cities I've been to - Adelaide
In the past when I talked to friends who had lived in Australia, an oft-heard comment was that "it's rather quiet at night".
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
When I went to Adelaide, this realization hit me very strongly. As I had arrived on their national day, everything was very very quiet. Not only were all stores closed, with doors shut resolutely, there was nobody on the streets at all, and very very few cars. It was rather eerie in fact, something like aliens had just sucked everybody away.
My family and I were staying at my dad's friend's house. When I walked out at dusk, the great beauty of the scenery hit me - rolling hills leading down to a deep blue sea, which spread out to eternity. At night all the stars came out, and you could count them. No pollution in the night sky.
My dad's friend had a nice house too. It was large, not opulent, but comfortable. A lovely garden surrounded it. He seemed to live a pretty relaxing life. Scale that house, garden and life up, and that's Adelaide.
Of course it is also really boring, which is why I will not live in a place like that till I retire and have nothing better to do than play Starcraft 5 all day or something like that.
Cities I've been to - Singapore
What is Singapore like?
My family has a tradition of going to Singapore for holidays at the end of the year, around Christmas time, for what I do not know, nevertheless I have to go. So I've been in Singapore for a fair bit of time.
Singapore is sorta like KL to me. But what's the difference between the two?
Now I have this old friend. Whenever we used to hang out with her, we would have to give her advance notifications of our plans to gather, so that she could slot in a spot for us in her very packed timetable. Educational, MEANINGFUL stuff blossomed out all over her timetable, I think filling nearly all of her waking hours.
She told us that the concept of spending a whole day without prior plans was rather alien to her. Impromptu things such as lazing around at the mamak for hours, or driving up to Genting suddenly was not advisable at all.
This impressive girl is now in Harvard doing a doctorate. I would be willing to bet a finger that she had never received a grade less than an A on a major exam in her life.
Now compare that to me. I put in a moderate amount of effort for work and studies but slack off quite a lot too. My room is rather messy and I tend to forget things right and left.
That girl is Singapore, and I am KL. That's the difference.
My family has a tradition of going to Singapore for holidays at the end of the year, around Christmas time, for what I do not know, nevertheless I have to go. So I've been in Singapore for a fair bit of time.
Singapore is sorta like KL to me. But what's the difference between the two?
Now I have this old friend. Whenever we used to hang out with her, we would have to give her advance notifications of our plans to gather, so that she could slot in a spot for us in her very packed timetable. Educational, MEANINGFUL stuff blossomed out all over her timetable, I think filling nearly all of her waking hours.
She told us that the concept of spending a whole day without prior plans was rather alien to her. Impromptu things such as lazing around at the mamak for hours, or driving up to Genting suddenly was not advisable at all.
This impressive girl is now in Harvard doing a doctorate. I would be willing to bet a finger that she had never received a grade less than an A on a major exam in her life.
Now compare that to me. I put in a moderate amount of effort for work and studies but slack off quite a lot too. My room is rather messy and I tend to forget things right and left.
That girl is Singapore, and I am KL. That's the difference.
Friday, January 24, 2014
Adversity breeding success
A common theme often repeated by many is that "a kid who grows up in poverty and hardship will tend to be more successful". Though this theme does sound inspiring, is it true?
Firstly, let us look at the richest billionaires of the world.
Bill Gates - came from a upper-middle class family (had money to send him to Harvard too).
Warren Buffet - came from a middle class family.
Carlos Slim - dad already had a successful family business.
Li Ka Shing - actually had a rich uncle whom he worked for.
Mark Zuckerberg - see Bill Gates.
We can clearly see that many of them did not really rise from suffocating poverty.
Secondly, if we look at statistics, we can see that people have a tendency to stick in their own class, i.e. kids of poor people tend to stay poor, while kids of rich people tend to stay rich. Of course, one can work to better oneself in life, but statistically speaking, many do not. Even in the United States, widely touted as the land of opportunity, only 3 to 6 percent of families go from poor to rich or vice versa.
Of course one may say that there are exceptions to this, which I do not deny at all. Nevertheless, the statement "a kid who grows up in poverty and hardship will tend to be more successful" is a generalization, thus it can only be defended by statistical evidence, which clearly do not favor it. The truth is that given two kids picked at random, the one from a middle or upper class family is much more likely to be financially successful than the one from a poor family.
I feel that the constant repetition of this statement may damage society by making us focus less on welfare and educational opportunities for the poor, thus I am loathe to repeat it.
Firstly, let us look at the richest billionaires of the world.
Bill Gates - came from a upper-middle class family (had money to send him to Harvard too).
Warren Buffet - came from a middle class family.
Carlos Slim - dad already had a successful family business.
Li Ka Shing - actually had a rich uncle whom he worked for.
Mark Zuckerberg - see Bill Gates.
We can clearly see that many of them did not really rise from suffocating poverty.
Secondly, if we look at statistics, we can see that people have a tendency to stick in their own class, i.e. kids of poor people tend to stay poor, while kids of rich people tend to stay rich. Of course, one can work to better oneself in life, but statistically speaking, many do not. Even in the United States, widely touted as the land of opportunity, only 3 to 6 percent of families go from poor to rich or vice versa.
Of course one may say that there are exceptions to this, which I do not deny at all. Nevertheless, the statement "a kid who grows up in poverty and hardship will tend to be more successful" is a generalization, thus it can only be defended by statistical evidence, which clearly do not favor it. The truth is that given two kids picked at random, the one from a middle or upper class family is much more likely to be financially successful than the one from a poor family.
I feel that the constant repetition of this statement may damage society by making us focus less on welfare and educational opportunities for the poor, thus I am loathe to repeat it.
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