Hear Ye! Since 1998.

Summer Holidays 1999/2000

Summer in Singapore, Hong Kong and a 3-day cruise to Malaysia.
23
Dec 99
Thu

Burning $2

Well we arrived at the airport about three hours too early. I was just thinking how strange it was that an Airport that will be a hub of international travel in September next year has not one internet terminal for people to access. I wasn’t quite right – there’s three terminals running Netscape 3 (can we say, ancient?) inside the boarding area. So what the hell… I needed to burn some time, so I shoved $2 in for this 10 minute net session I’m now getting. I still reckon though, that an airport is the best place for an internet cafe – people needing to get in touch with others around the world, while needing to kill some time waiting for flights.

24
Dec 99
Fri

Another $2 to Burn

Safely made it :). I’m now 6800km from good ol’ Camden. And found another Net terminal. Singapore’s airport definitely seems much more modern (I’m on IE 5.0 now, and my $2 buys me 15 minutes :). Not to mention clean. Think I’ll try to find another terminal in Hong Kong airport when I get there later tomorrow, make it a habit of sorts. Oh yeah, Merry Christmas!



Just Can’t Keep Me Away

We’re just about to leave for Hong Kong. It turns out that my uncle has access to the business class lounge. How bourgeious is this? Free alcohol and food! And a free net connection (yes, I’m not paying to make this page update). I can’t imagine what the first class lounge is like…

28
Dec 99
Tue

Bleh

At a cafe with a friend. Jumped onto a free net computer with a 1.5MB connection :). I didn’t find a terminal at the airport though. Anyway I thought I’d take the opportunity to check mail and do a quick post. I’ve decided I’ll get a Kodak DC290 digital camera, if I can find it at a good price. Prices I’ve seen so far range from HK$5500 (which sounds dodgy) to HK$6700 and everything in between. Full retail games here are cheap – average about AU$55-60 for new releases. Of course, you could get the “OEM versions” for 10% of that at AU$5 :).

People here are short. I’m actually taller than the majority of people on the streets. It’s giving me a bit of an ego boost, actually :). Of course it’s the opposite in Sydney where just about everyone is taller. I need to buy a suit for work (which starts on Jan 17th). I’m actually too small in Australia to buy a premade suit (nothing is that small). But everything here is like… mini-size or asian-size. My cousin is sharing the hotel room with me. He’s 5’9 and his feet stick off the end of the bed. Clothing in adults’ small size in Australia just fits me, but I have to go to adults’ large size here :). Anyway, gotta run. Have a great new millennium y’all.

And one tip. Never open Solo’s site at a public terminal when people are watching :).

3
Jan 00
Mon

Blurg

Back in Singapore. Got loan of a laptop and net connection from my aunt. I’m happy :)

Sim Lim Square is a 7 level computer shopping mall in Singapore and there are easily a dozen stores that openly sell pirated software spread out amongst the 7 levels. So there I was, looking at a copy of the (alleged) final release of Win 2000 when the store lights went out. The shopkeeper hurried everyone out of the store, wheeled the outside displays inside and slammed down the shutters. The store had been closed in under 30 seconds. All around the mall you could hear shutters banging down. Funny, that. I’m still trying to work out how the signal got around that police were coming. One hour later, all of them had reopened. Real, original game software is even cheaper in Singapore. $49 for new releases.

I finally found a store with the Intellimouse Explorer in stock. Hardware in Singapore is that much more cheaper than Sydney. It’s a really schmick mouse. The scroll wheel could be a little more stiffer (it rolls too smoothly) to provide more tactile feedback, but apart from that, it complements Microsoft’s excellent hardware range quite well.

I bought my digital camera, but it wasn’t the Kodak. The storekeeper convinced me to go with the 2.3 megapixel Fujifilm MX2900. I’ll probably put up some pics taken with it later.

Some net news. Andrew told me of SMSMEBABY, an sms web gateway service for Aussie mobiles. It allows exchange of sms to e-mail and vice versa as well. Looks nifty… I dunno how they can afford to provide it for free though. Surely they don’t make that much from advertising?

As for e-mails anyone has sent me, I will get back to them when I get back to Australia, so just hold on tight.

7
Jan 00
Fri

bbs

Back from a three day cruise up to Malaysia. I leave for the trip back to Australia tomorrow, so barring any mishaps with the plane flight (our Qantas flight number is “124” which has some rather unfortunate implications in Cantonese when said aloud… Chinese superstition which my grandparents are especially quick to point out :), I’ll be back in Sydney tomorrow and making semi-regular updates once more. And back with a webcam too – one that dad (of all people…) got conned into buying!

10
Jan 00
Mon

Troubling

We went on a 3-day cruise up to Malaysia and back while overseas. It’s just slightly troubling to know that at least some of the systems aboard a 78,000 tonne cruise liner were running Windows NT. Here we see the emergency drill video displaying an IP conflict error message. I couldn’t resist the photo opportunity. [Another pic]

Sorry... didn't quite get that phone number

12
Jan 00
Wed

Hong Kong Street Air

This quote sums up the air in Hong Kong pretty well. I’m sure you know where it’s from: “I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell … I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink and every time I do, I fear that I’ve somehow been infected by it.” They don’t use dry ice to create smoke for theatrical productions, just compressed street air.