Taken at Berjaya Times Square
Upstairs Downstairs
May 30, 2011 By View Comments
The Fiesta is Built Ford Sexy.
April 5, 2011 By View Comments
Backview. Photo taken by Tony Wong.
So after a weekend of the best Ford-play I ever had, I can tell you the Ford Fiesta is the sex. I can’t tell torque from cork but I can tell you the sound system rocks. There are two audio presets that can direct all the sound toward the driver and another that spreads it out evenly for all the passengers to enjoy.
The UI. Photo by Tony Wong.
Ford is also pushing all the right buttons by taking away a lot of the usual buttons, knobs and levers. There is no door lock thingy on each door. It’s centralized into one button on the command center (pimped out dashboard). One push and all doors are locked to outsiders but passengers can open their doors at any time. There is also no lever to open the gas tank which Ford didn’t tell me so I spent a good few minutes looking high and low for it at the gas station. The attendant helped me with it and we found that it opens from the outside and there is no cap to cover the tank, you just stick the nozzle in and pump away. Woot. No more forgetting, losing or struggling with the cap and breaking a few expensive french-manicured nails.
Talk button. Picture by Tony Wong.
“But what about the driving experience?” you ask. The car handles very well on the road. Pickup is gradual but fast and sometimes too fast with a little jerk forward. Have to learn how to press the accelerator. The steering is fantabulous. The few friends I have passed the keys to to test drive agrees. It was very responsive and stable at sharp corners. I could almost turn the wheel with a finger and yet it stays straight when I’m going straight.
So, do you have to trade-in a kidney to buy a Ford Fiesta? If you want to but it’s pretty a-ford-able. The only thing stopping you from taking one home today is the waiting list which can be up to 3 months depending on the color you choose. White and Aurora Blue are the best selling colors. Honestly, take the Chilli Orange. The Fiesta looks best in bright colors.
Built Ford Sexy. Picture by Tony Wong.
For more information on the Ford Fiesta, go to http://www.ford.net.my/.
Thank you Ford for a lovely experience in the Fiesta. Especially to E.S. Lee, Hazel, Steven Tan and Vivienne Huang from the Ford family. Thanks also to Tony Wong (who took photos), CW Loh, Ramesh V, Azizi J for the feedback and inspiration.
No more blind spots with this side view mirror.
I’m Uniflying
March 19, 2011 By View Comments
Unifi high speed broadband is now in my area and I finally got it installed. What is so amazing about Unifi isn’t just faster Internet but I get what I am paying for, all 5mbps of it.
I registered sometime late February at a kiosk set up under a giant umbrella near where I live. It looked really dodgy but since the registration forms were in triplicate – typical semi-government paperwork, it must be legit. Thankfully, the registration process was fast. I was out of the umbrella in 5 minutes.
I was told I’d have to wait a month for installation. Then I got a call from TM this week (2 weeks later) saying they were bringing my installation forward and I would get it by this weekend. Nice. Thumbs up for TM. They called me again yesterday to remind me they would be coming today at 2.30pm and they called me again today at 3.30pm to see if the guys were here already. The guys did come on time and it was all done in 2 hours. Two worked on the broadband connection and two worked on the TV. Two thumbs up for TM. I am just wowed by the whole experience. I love a company with great customer service. You can never fail with great customer service.
Get Unifi, you’ll love it. Many things you can do with Unifi’s high-speed broadband:
1. Broadband TV / IPTV- 13 free channels including TED.com
2. Free VOIP calls to any fixed-line phone (yes, it’s still around) in the country.
3. Watch HD videos/movies/tv shows – streamed live on YouTube or downloaded for later
The only slack thing is the TV content. Though the channels are ala carte instead of packaged like the other pay tv station, it’s lacking in quality. Syfy isn’t what it used to be. Warner TV is probably the best of the lot. What I’d pay premium for is the Comedy Channel but I doubt we’ll ever see it on our TV. You get a few minutes of free preview into all the subscription channels before deciding on which one you’d like to subscribe to. If you have it or when you get it, let me know what are your favorite channels and happy flying.
Lessons from The Social Network
November 18, 2010 By View Comments
I watched the movie last night and it got me thinking too. Did people need another MySpace or Friendster? It was essentially the same thing. What made Facebook a success? I don’t think it took off because it was exclusive to Harvard students. The key ingredient was “status update” so students could find out who was available to sleep with. That was what got Facebook the early traction and thus, the Winklevoss brothers didn’t deserve the $65 million settlement because this feature wasn’t their idea.
Is there anything else we can learn from this movie? My takeaway (doesn’t mean I subscribe to them):
1. There’s always a need your product can address. Psst, sex sells.
2. It’s good to have a rich BFF (best friend for Facebook)
3. Must have Sean Parker’s ego. If not, get him in as a partner.
4. When you’re CEO, you can print anything you like on you business card.
5. If you’re naturally arrogant, make sure you’re a billionaire or on your way there.
The movie was entertaining and if you want to find out how much of it is true, read What parts of the The Social Network (movie) are accurate and which are not? on Quora which by the way was started by Adam D’Angelo who was CTO of Facebook
If you’ve seen the movie, what was your takeaway? As an entrepreneur, user, programmer or film maker?
Fancy Fans
November 18, 2010 By View Comments
Sunflower Fan.
I just saw the coolest ceiling fan. Now this is what all fans should look like – which is not to look like a fan. This one here is called the sunflower fan. When not in use, the blades are folded in to look like petals and when you turn on the fan, the blades fan out into, well, a fan. Watch the video here. It looks really cool.
I’ve always imagined ceiling fans to be boring which was why I set out to buy a white ceiling fan so that it’ll blend into the white ceiling and disappear. The first shop I walked into, funny enough was called Fancy, in Uptown Damansara. They had fancy fans like this one and propeller looking fans with fancy prices in the thousands of ringgit. I was mesmerized, like a kid in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. I wish I could take them all home but I had a boring white fan budget. Maybe one day I’ll have a fancy fan in each room of the house even though there’s an air conditioner there. I’d like them to stand out and make the ceiling look less boring.
Found a site that has more fancy fans. Check out G Squared Art. Here are two that I like.
The Artemis
The Cirque
Have you seen some really cool fans?
Yes, it’s 4G.
November 11, 2010 By View Comments
Folks, the wait for YTL’s 4G service will soon be over, especially for those outside the Klang Valley and up north.
In a private event at Lot 10 last week, well, not so private after all of us checked in to Foursquare and told the world where we were, YTL Communications introduced YES, the name of the new 4G service.
It was pretty much a see-and-no-touch event. We got to see the logo and pictures of the 4 new modem/mifi/dongle/phone devices that will be rolled out with the service on November 19. What was immediately or available soon after the event was a page where folks could register for their Yes IDs.
As I was tweeting and updating Facebook with what’s happening I was getting feedback from friends. The noise was mostly on the service being called 4G. Dhillon K. wrote on my wall “It’s not 4g please don’t call it that….” Some folks on twitter started getting personally, putting all 4G service providers into a basket called blasphemy.
And today I read Zach Epstein’s article on fake 4G. He summed it up well “it’s not lies, it’s just marketing.” Yes, it’s a marketing ploy. What better way to say “new and improved” than calling it 4G. For 4G’s sake when it really comes I think it should change to a new series eg. 4X or something. Then 5X, 6X etc. The G series is kinda screwed.
So it’s fake 4G but let’s be real. I asked on Twitter, ‘Are people not going to subscribe to fake 4G even though it’s many times faster than 3G but no where near 4G standards?’
Replies:
@bytebot (Colin Charles): i think people care about speed. I don’t think people care about marketing messages. Call it whatever, just provide throughput
@yoonkit: I’m awaiting the sharp discounts / promos they do.
I agree. Speed and price will be deciding factors for a lot of us and we won’t care whether it’s called 3G, 4G or 10G. Could ITU be blamed for dragging their feet on the 4G definition? Possibly. Whether it’s 11mbps or 100mbps, the great unwashed can only understand “faster than what is currently available” and faster by how much? Like, Star-Wars-Princess-Leia-holographic-projection kind of fast or YouTube-HD-videos kind of fast? And what’s it going to cost? Whoever can deliver the value proposition clearly will win.
All that Yes has to offer will be revealed this November 19. Wing Lee, CEO of YTL Comms said Yes4G will have no strings attached. I wonder if that means no contract and no bandwidth cap. High speed broadband does not work with 3GB or 5GB bandwidth caps. If unlimited data is an unsustainable model, I hope to see the limit pushed much higher than what’s in the market now. I’ll be comfortable with 20GB – 50GB. What do you hope to see? What would make you sit up and say “now this is a broadband service that makes sense, sign me up”?
Go Goggle it.
October 7, 2010 By View Comments
When Google launched Goggles this week, I had to read it twice. It looked like Google x 2.
You can find Google Goggles inside the Google Mobile App for the iPhone and the coolest thing about it is that you can now do searches by taking a picture with your iPhone. It also comes with voice search.
I’ll start with voice search. I’m not too happy with it so far. I did a search on KFC’s near me. The app had no problems hearing me but the result it brought back was KFC in Singapore, hundreds and hundreds of miles away. I was within walking distance, in fact, I was staring at a KFC and it wasn’t showing up in the search. Same thing happened when I searched for pizza. Next I searched for thechannelc and it started acting like it had trouble hearing. I got The Chelsea. One more time and I got Gretchen Rossi. Hmm. Ok, so it works very well for restaurant searches in a neighboring country now let’s try photo search.
I took a shot of a billboard and Google Goggles’ scan picked up the advertiser’s logo and instantly brought up the company’s webpage. Whoa. That was really impressive. Next I took a picture of my dog hoping Google will bring back some useful information about his breed, dog training tips or pet stores nearby but it could not recognize the image. It was my bad, I didn’t read the manual. Found out later, what works and what doesn’t from the app’s tutorial. It won’t work on animals.
I do think GG has a lot of potential. The picture search feature brings us closer to the augmented reality concept I read on Matthew Buckland’s blog where you can point your camera phone at someone’s face and see all his digital profiles like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin (including prison record) pop up on the screen. A bit like SoundHound, an app that listens to a tune and comes back with the name of the song, lyrics and a button to get it instantly from iTunes. I wonder why Google hadn’t come up with music search. Anyways, I think picture search from Google Goggles is awesome and I’m keeping an eye on it. I’m not too crazy about voice search but it’ll be interesting to see how it develops too.
To infinity and beyond!
September 27, 2010 By View Comments
Last month was about trains so this month is about planes.
I got my first ride in a 1971 Cessna 172L Skyhawk on Saturday morning. It was a 4-seater, single-engine, 150 horsepower plane. Hey, that is slightly more than what is under the hood of my Honda. Oh boy. Will it take off? Will it stay in the air?
I’m generally not afraid of flying, I doze off automatically once I get on a plane. That’s how relaxed I am. This was different and I didn’t know why. Once I squeezed into the Cessna, I wanted to scream “STOP, STOP, LET ME OUT!!!” Fortunately, Reuben took off quickly. It wasn’t as scary as I thought and I enjoyed the ride tremendously. Places I was bored of seeing looked different and new again. Like MidValley, Sentral and Brickfields, Batu Caves…
After some time, we headed back and Reuben decided to give everyone a taste of his aerobatic skills. I knew this was coming. I didn’t pay for the ride, so I was at his mercy. So there were some sharp turns and sudden free falls with the engine killed. I screamed just a little bit and tried to keep my breakfast from coming up. Eyes closed and imagining the worse.
Read: How to break out of your comfort zone.
Reuben belongs to a group called KL by Air that operates scenic tours flying over Klang Valley airspace. The cost for a ride is between RM600-RM1000 for one hour. KL by Air describe themselves on their Facebook group as:
…a bunch of pilots who love nothing more than to share our passion of flight with you. You will find that our costs are significantly lower than that of others offering scenic flights, due to the fact that we’re NOT getting paid! That’s right! You only pay for the hourly rental of the aircraft and nothing more! You can choose from our sturdy Cessna 172, or the Rolls-Royce of light aircraft, the Cirrus SR20! Each aircraft is able to carry 3 passengers, and we have 2 standard packages; the KL City tour, and the Port Klang tour (details below). However, should you wish to do something different, contact us, and we’ll definitely be able to work something out!
Now it’s time to meet our pilots! Our friendly pilots are qualified Commercial Licence holders. Adrian is a qualified Flight Instructor at a local flying school and has taught numerous students. Reuben has flown a variety of aircraft both locally and abroad, and is a qualified aerobatic pilot as well. Both are experienced and easy-going, so don’t hesitate to approach them with any questions!
I have to thank Mei Ying and Reuben for this ride.
