October posts
Bluetits
What I want to know is this. Is it possible to wear a bluetooth headset on a semi-permanent basis and not look like a complete idiot?
The same old...
One of the more enduring mysteries in football is how certain managers seem to pop up time and again in spite of their conspicuous lack of success. Graeme Souness, for example, who was interviewed for the job of Bolton manager (but pulled out). Personally, I think he should stick to being a football pundit, and I suspect that fans of Liverpool, Blackburn, and Newcastle (amongst others) would agree.
ATV World are showing Heston Blumenthal's series In Search of Perfection on Tuesday nights. I've only watched one so far, but it was a wonderfully bizarre program. The recipe (which appears in modified form in The Times) calls for mass-produced sliced white bread to make toast-flavoured water. Not an ingredient that I'd ever have considered. I guess he knows what he's doing, but eccentric doesn't even begin to describe his approach to food.
Just over a year ago I mentioned that the BBC would be launching several new channels in Hong Kong and elsewhere. Those channels (BBC Knowledge, BBC Lifestyle & CBeebies) are now available in Hong Kong, but apparently that's only the start of it, and The Guardian reports that BBC Worldwide is to launch a further 30 channels internationally, as well as a high-definition outlet and an on-demand service in the United States, as part of the next stage of its aggressive expansion plan. I hadn't heard about the 21 new channels, let alone the 30 more. That would be the Doctor Who channel, the Top Gear channel, the Michael Palin channel, and so on, I presume.
Free stuff, absolutely no catch
It seems as if it's impossible to sign up for a credit card or a pay-tv or broadband service - or almost anything which requires a long-term contract - without getting a free gift. Banks give stuff away if you meet certain criteria (my favourite current offer is the one gives you a free plane ticket if you invest a minimum of HK$5m. As if someone with that sort of money is desperate for an economy class ticket - yes, you heard that right - to London...).
Changing a fuse should be easy, right? Not in my kitchen, it isn't. Fuses are designed to blow if there is a problem, and it is supposed to be very easy to replace them. Isn't it? Well, replacing the fuse is easy, of course, but to get at the plug you need to pull the appliance right out. Each appliance has its own purpose-built slot, so you can't easily get hold of them - or move them from side-to-side - to ease them out. The fridge is huge and almost impossible to move, and of course washing machines are deliberately designed to be very heavy. OK, so the microwave is a bit easier.
I went into to a stationery shop to buy a toner cartridge for my printer. A thimble-full of ink for only HK$100 - thanks very much, people who design printers. What amused me was that the shop had used plastic ties in an attempt to prevent customers from stealing these hugely over-priced items.
Help! I think I'm running out of time in the day to listen to all the podcasts I download. Football Weekly (from The Guardian) is now twice a week, and the BBC has started to offer many more shows, including the News Quiz, the Jonathan Ross show, and even The Archers. As luck would have it, I can just about keep up, in because Danny Baker's All Day Breakfast Show (ADBS) is temporarily on hold.
Worse than London and New York?
Another one of those surveys that seem to work wonders in getting free publicity. It was in Friday's Independent London's public transport is world's best (no, really) and Sunday's SCMP London ranked above HK in transport poll as well. "A survey that voted London as having the best public transport system in the world has been greeted with disbelief in Hong Kong - which ranked fifth."
End of the geek affair? I think not
Apple have come in for a lot of criticism recently over the iPhone. First for reducing the price so soon after launching it, and then for issuing firmware updates that have done bad things to phones if people did naughty things that Apple didn't like. Jack Schofield in The Guardian wonders if the iPhone could mark the end of the geek affair with Apple.
If you move from the UK to Hong Kong, many things about driving can seem very familiar (driving on the left, road signs and markings, etc.). This can be deceptive. One obvious difference is that in the UK (and many other countries), on-street parking is allowed everywhere except where there are restrictions (normally indicated by yellow or red lines). In Hong Kong, it is prohibited (on all roads with street lighting) except where it is specifically allowed. Yellow lines are used to indicate whether you are allowed to stop, rather than (as in the UK) when you can park.
More top quality sub-editing from the SCMP (a couple of weeks ago). Was 'hapless' really an appropriate adjective to choose in the headline to a story about a clerical worker, who was killed yesterday trying to help his girlfriend, who had fallen unconscious after an electric shock while taking a bath.
The TV preview section in this week's Post Magazine makes a rather rash assumption. NHK & BBC make programmes in High Definition (HD). TVB broadcast these programmes. Person in Hong Kong buys HD TV. Person in Hong Kong is able to watch these programmes in HD. Well, no they can't. TVB and Pearl hope to start HD transmissions later this year, and only in selected areas. Until then, you'll be out of luck.
posted by Chris @ Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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