EDsight

Do not place drinks near your notebook. Or, you’ll end up experiencing what I went through.

Today, I spilled a glass of ice water on my Dell Latitude D630 and it went blank! Desperate attempts to dry it with a hair dryer could not recover the machine.

Eventually, I had to do what I don’t normally like to do — get the Dell repairman in. What’s worst is that I do not have “Complete Cover”, meaning that I would have to foot the cost of any damage. Now I know what “Complete Cover” means!

The experience over the helpline was bad, no thanks to having a call centre based in another country. After numerous calls, they finally decided to send somebody over — after getting us to pay $130 via credit card.

Upon arrival, the serviceman wanted to change my motherboard immediately. I stopped him and asked if he could open up the notebook, dry the motherboard and check if that would work.

Thank God the notebook booted up normally after this procedure.

You can’t imagine the thoughts that went through my mind. It’s almost as if a close family member had died! I was wondering what to do. Why was my last backup in December? Why did I put the mug so close to my notebook? Why must this happen to me?

Anyway, lesson learnt — no more mugs on my working desk.

It has been nearly three months since an intense soccer game — I’m still irked!

Why? Because the better team lost! And not to our opponent but because of they had a very powerful 12th player on the pitch — dressed in black! His decisions were certainly one-sided and questionable.

While he awarded penalties to our opponents — yes, they were fairly awarded — he denied us two blatant penalties. He can’t even deny not seeing the offence because he was so close to the scene.

After a word from the opponent’s captain, he swapped a yellow with a red card and sent one of our players off. And when a two-legged lunge came from the other side, he chose to keep the card in his pocket. Talk about leadership influence.

I certainly hope he does not officiate any more games featuring my team.

If he does, he should not wear black but the colour of our opponents.

Alright, I now own a iPod Touch. It’s not because I have gone out and bought one but because it came with my renewal of the broadband contract. The nifty device came in a compact packing with a USB charger and headset.

When I tried looking for a user manual, I was shocked to find out that we had to download it from the web. Talk about cost cutting!

Not one to waste time downloading, I tried to recall what I have seen on the iPhone coverage on how to use the phone.

And voila! It’s not that difficult after all, just a downward stroke to scroll up the screen and an upward stroke to bring the screen down. Pinch the screen the image is reduced. Spread your fingers and it’s enlarged.

This is great! Now I know why Apple decided not to include the manual — apart from obvious cost savings on its part.

Bangkok is one of my favourite places. The food and shopping are great and my family and I travel frequently to Thailand and have spent many enjoyable days in Bangkok.

However, my recent trip in December 2007 left me with a sour taste, and I’m not talking about Thai food but Bangkok taxis and tuk tuks.

Yes, we all have our different experience on tuk tuks and I know from past experience to avoid whenever possible if I do not want to haggle and even end up in the wrong places. But, when two tuk tuks approached my family this time round and offered a very good price to bring us from Pratunam to Yaorawat, I thought things have changed. As they say, if an offer is too good to be true, then it probably isn’t. And I learnt the hard way. As we navigated the back lanes of Pratunam, they suddenly stopped by the side of a lane and told us that they need to bring us to a jewellery shop. We said we just wanted to go to Yaorawat but they insisted that we had to go to the shop so that they can get free petrol. When we declined, they told us to get off their tuk tuks.

As for Bangkok taxis, I have found them to be a very affordable means of getting around — it’s cheaper to travel by taxi than BTS if you have four persons. But this time round, about 2 out of 3 taxis we boarded wanted to charge us a fixed fare – about 200 baht from Pratunam to MBK – which costs less than 60 baht by meter. Needless to say, we asked them to charge by meter but they refused and simply drove off. We overheard one taxi driver doing the same thing to other tourists. On another occasion, we boarded a taxi from Pratunam heading for MBK. He kept complaining about traffic jams and asked us to alight a few metres after we boarded.

The only place where we did not have any problem with taxi was the queue at MBK.

Why do taxis and tuk tuks have to resort to such measures when Bangkok is a tourist paradise? They are definitely not lacking in business and I beleive that many tourists would gladly tip good service.

Unless this situation improves, I am going to bring a good pair of walking shoes next time I go to Bangkok. And I’ll stay near my favourite haunts so that I do not need to take taxis or tuk tuks.

The things that people do to get what they cannot have never cease to amaze me! What am I talking about? The iPhone.

The Apple iPhone has taken the world by storm — though it’s currently available only in selected countries. But that has not stopped people in other countries from trying to lay their hands on the phone.

A case in point are three of my friends, who managed to get iPhones. But, they had a slight problem. The person they bought from forgot to “unlock” the phones. Currently, these phones are nothing more than just expensive MP3 players.
What is it that drives them to spend money to buy an iPhone when they already have some of the latest phones available back home?

I guess it must be just the thrill of owning the latest gadget and having the bragging rights — at least, until the iPhone is finally available in our country later this year.

As for me, I’ll just wait and even then, I may not switch. Why? Because for all its status symbol appeal, I will only upgrade when the new device offers features that I need, not just what the maker offers.