Daily Archives: March 3, 2010

PCCW Pocket WiFi for Sale

ARGH!!!! One day after buying a new Pocket WiFi unit from PCCW to replace the one I lost, I find the one I lost. Don’t ask. It’s too aggravating to detail.

But that does leave me with two devices and I only need one, so I am going to sell one off. You can take a look at the Netvigator Everywhere page here.

This provides WiFi connectivity for up to 5 devices anywhere in Hong Kong. It works in bars and restaurants. It works hiking in the woods. It works in the car and in the MTR – basically anywhere that there is a cellular signal. 7.2 meg connectivity, connect up to five devices at once wirelessly and you have the option to connect it to your PC or laptop with the included USB cable. It’s roughly the same height and width but half the thickness of a pack of smokes. The battery recharges via a separate charger or USB.

New, this sells for $2480, as I found out last night. You may establish an account and get a SIM card from PCCW (HK$328 per month for unlimited usage) or it may be compatible with other SIM cards and services; I can’t say. If anyone’s interested, you can buy this from me for $2,000. Post a comment or send an email to hongkietown at gmail dot com.

Lan Kwai Fong is a slum

Big Lychee reviews food reviewers and finds only one source that he admires. And I like a reviewer who is not afraid to savage a place, something one doesn’t encounter too often in restaurant reviews locally. But then, again, do I agree with some of his other assessments or do I think he’s completely off his rocker? “Whores AND prostitutes”?

TARGET (泰達財經) does not appreciate Lan Kwai Fong.

It is a filthy place, in the main, and some of the buildings in their present state ought to be condemned, in this medium’s opinion.

The entire Lan Kwai Fong, though it is well known to Hongkongers as an entertainment area, is a horrid admixture of European and Asian drunks, sitting outside bars and restaurants, while whores and prostitutes roam the street, looking for johns.

At the same time, homosexuals scour the area in search of new partners.

For young girls to visit this area of Hongkong Central, it may seem an exciting adventure into another side of the Hongkong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but, probably, more often than not, innocent girls are corrupted by the fast-talking inebriants that frequent what this medium would claim is a blot on the territory.

This guy knows something about food but somehow I don’t think I’d want to share a table with him.

Too Much Information?

I’m thinking about my reaction to this opinion piece in today’s SCMP by Peter Kammerer. My ego (and a friend) tells me he is probably writing about me, though a couple of supposed “details” are wrong. I am actually more aware than most of how public this information really is and how, once posted, the information remains available online even if I subsequently delete it. I know about caches and internet archive sites, I know that Facebook is searchable from Google and other search engines and I know that a cyber-stalker recently went through my Twitter history trying to find some evidence that did not exist to use against me.

I don’t post every detail of my life, even if it sometimes can seem that way. (Of course, anyone who has been reading me pre-2006 knows that I used to post far more intimate details of my life, much more than I do today.) I believe that the writer has taken a few bits of info and puffed them up to make them seem more important than they actually are. He knows I drive a BMW? Lots of people in Hong Kong drive one. He knows what movies or music I like – and so? I enjoy communicating about my passions in life and since those passions don’t include abusing animals or 80s hair metal music, I’m not embarrassed to share them. (Although naturally there are those who do not share my values and who find some aspects of my life or some of my opinions distasteful, but that’s life.)

As I’ve commented before, both here and elsewhere, the fact that I’ve indicated on foursquare that I’m in some specific bar or restaurant does not mean that my house is vacant or unattended – far from it. Yes, I’m easy to identify when I’m out and about. Yes, in many cases, you (the person reading this right now) know more about me than I know about you. But I don’t see that as a bad thing. On the other hand, I think that there definitely are many people who post way too much personal information about themselves online, much more than I ever have or ever will about myself. There are quite a few blogs dedicated to things people have posted on Facebook that should never have been so public; as far as I know nothing I have ever posted has been worthy of a mention in these blogs. I agree with Mr. Kammerer that children in particular need to be educated as to the potential dangers and that their internet usage should be monitored to a certain extent by their parents.

I have gone through these periods of thinking that I post too much personal information about myself, that I should strive to make the blog less personal and then something happens that I just can’t stop myself from writing about. I have learned that a little bit of offhand phrasing here or there has a way of being misinterpreted and backfiring, though generally in ways that are more amusing than harmful. I know that just because I write about something and think that everyone will see it as “X,” some will see it as “Y.” And I suppose that some will say that it’s an expression of ludicrous egotism that I think this piece is about me or that I am revealing too much by writing about it here and drawing further attention to it and to myself.

There is an upside to the very minimal amount of fame that I may have which does not get mentioned in the article – and that’s assuming that having a few hundred people per day read my blog makes me “famous.” In Hong Kong, far more people know about Bus Uncle than know about me. But in the balance, I believe I’ve received far more positive things than negative as a result of people knowing who I am in the real world – from the occasional free drink in a bar to job offers.

At any rate, take a look and let me know what you think about all this.

Too much information
PETER KAMMERER

Mar 02, 2010

I have never met Mark, but I feel I know him well. From following his blog over the past four years, receiving his Tweets and occasionally checking his Facebook page, I have learned what I presume to be virtually everything there is to know about him. From his postings, I have a sound sense of his likes, dislikes, hates and fears. With a fair degree of accuracy, I can second-guess his music and movie choices, which restaurant he will go to for dinner and his next holiday destination.

At any given time of day or night, I have a good idea where Mark – not his real name – is. I know that he is moderately wealthy, has a Filipino girlfriend whom he met in a Wan Chai bar and has a taste for Shenzhen massages. Without difficulty, I can show you where he lives, reveal the type, model and colour of his car and, if needs be, find out his mother’s address. I even know how many tattoos he has and where they are on his body.

My interest in Mark would seem to be more than casual. There may appear to be a measure of voyeuristic intent in the way I follow his activities. Even as I write this, I have to agree that this all sounds creepy. If you’re reading this, Mark, please understand that I have no ill will towards you or your property; that I read you because I like your style of writing and find your life interesting.

Of course, I could well be the exception. I know from the page views and comments posted to the various internet sites that I am just one of a number of Mark’s followers. Some of the remarks point towards people who are not so enamoured with him. Anyone jealous of his circumstances would, I believe, have little difficulty breaking into his home when he is out of town – a quick look at photographs posted to his blog can easily confirm this – and make off with some of his rare music memorabilia, his wall-sized plasma television or expensive camera equipment.

To prove that I am not devious of mind, this did not occur to me until I encountered the website pleaserobme.com at the weekend. Using information from the social networking site foursquare.com, which lets people share information about their whereabouts, it produces a list of people who are not at home. Whether they are in Tokyo, Seoul or New York, it takes just a little internet research to get an address. With a smattering of knowledge of burglary techniques, I imagine all manner
of ill-gotten gains are up for grabs.

Mark is, after all, not a rarity – a quick scan of social networking sites and blogs reveals an alarming number of similarly minded people with lax regard for safeguarding personal information. Whether because of a love of writing, a need to share information with friends and relatives or merely a planet-sized ego, they seem to think that they can let slip all manner of details along with their opinions and images. They clearly do not realise that the world is watching them. Along with those who have been “friended”, and casual readers, may be lurking teachers, employers and thieves.

I am sure this did not occur to a former colleague. A Tweet he sent out a few weeks before he left his job referred to the meal he was having at a time he should have been at his desk: a steak sandwich and a vodka. Nor, probably, did a friend think twice about the photos of a rather risque party in Manila posted on his page. As a teacher, he should have known better – and was fortunate Facebook censors stepped in before his school noticed.

My teenage sons have been lectured mercilessly about their Facebook pages. They have been told to be careful about who they “friend”, to think before putting location-specific information on posts or photos, to be hazy about addresses and to be wary about cross-posting to Twitter. In their haste to tell all and sundry about an interesting happening, they sometimes forget. They are lucky that I am lurking nearby to remind them.

The internet has revolutionised the way we work and communicate. Through it we have found new ways to express talents. But it is a tool that has to be used with care and thought. With the world as a potential audience, you can never be sure who is watching.

PCCW Conclusion (For Now)

So off to a PCCW shop tonight. Once there, the guy informed me that the $1680 price was for the USB modem, not the pocket WiFi gadget, which is $2,480. So much for the price quote I got on the phone from PCCW, huh? But I went ahead with this because I use the device daily and have roughly 18 months to go on the contract.

Of course, the guy then tried to up-sell me. He showed me a Thinkpad laptop, slightly larger than a netbook, whipped out his calculator and ran through some stuff faster than I could follow to show me that if I got a new contract and prepaid it, I’d be paying just $150 a month more than I’m paying now and get the netbook for free. Honestly, I just wasn’t in the mood for this and I said no, I already have a laptop. He leaned over and whispered to me, “You could sell the laptop off.” And he’s probably right about that – they had it priced at $4588, if memory serves, and I’m sure I could have unloaded it on DC Fever for at least $3500. So maybe I should have, but I didn’t feel like going through all that hassle. I already have a contract at $328 per month. Add on another roughly $150 per month – $3600 total – get the pocket WiFi free, get the netbook, sell the netbook for hopefully the same $3600 so the replacement thing is essentially free, should be a good deal? Something about it just seemed wrong to me.

I did point at a nearby 13 inch MacBook Pro and said I’d sign the deal if they could give me that one instead of the stinkpad. No. Of course not. But he did offer me a decent discount if I felt like buying one then and there – I didn’t. (My 13 inch MacBook is now one year old and working just fine and I think later this year Apple will do yet another upgrade to the MacBook Pro line so I’ll wait and see.)

Private-ish Kitchen

Sabah is one of our favorite restaurants. As some of you probably know, my ex-wife is Malaysian Chinese, from Kuala Lumpur, and she made it a mission to try every Malaysian restaurant she could find in Hong Kong. She rated Sabah as the best, even though to a certain extent they’ve adjusted their recipes for HK tastes (meaning less spicy). I continue to go there at least once a month and my gf likes it as well and has recommended it to all of her friends.

This place is nothing fancy. The service can be spotty. The food will probably never find its way into a Michelin guide and truthfully has sometimes varied in quality from visit to visit. But it’s generally quite tasty and satisfying and we usually get away with dinner for two for under $300. The place is very popular and if you go at peak times, you will be waiting outside for a table.

And that was the case tonight. Normally I don’t like to wait for a table in restaurants – if one is busy, there are so many other choices so close by. But tonight I was really in the mood for this. After waiting around 10 minutes, the manager came outside and asked if we were okay to eat “upstairs” – that we could be seated immediately, otherwise we might have a long wait ahead of us. So we agreed.

He walked us and two other waiting couples into the apartment building and we took the elevator up to the fourth floor. It seems they rented a one bedroom flat in the building and converted it into a dining room! The room could seat around 26 people and one corner of the room had been turned into a bar and service area. With just 10 other people dining at the time, it had a real “private kitchen” feel to it.

Of course one of the downsides of this arrangement is that when the food was ready, a waiter had to pick up the tray, exit the restaurant, enter the building, wait for the elevator and ride up to the 4th floor with the food. The food was more than warm but certainly less hot than when we usually dine downstairs. One waiter remains upstairs at all times, mobile phone in hand to call down orders and requests. Actually, when we were ready for the bill, they had to call downstairs and have someone bring that up as well!

Since I hadn’t had a “good” meal since our dinner at Abé last Wednesday, I ordered our perennial favorites – beef rendang, dry fried chicken curry and roti, with two mang0-coconut shakes. We basically wiped the plates clean. Sorry, no photos but there are 215 photos at their Open Rice page.