EDsight

In our tech savvy society, many of us take many things for granted. When we power on our notebook, we expect it to work properly.

I never realised how much I appreciated a full functioning keyboard until mine went a little cranky due to a water spill.

When I pressed “2″, the screen showed “24″. “9″ and “0″ were not working at all. What’s worse was that all of a sudden, commas started running across the page.

Accessing any website that required password authentication was a nightmare as only the black dots appear when I keyed in the password. Since “2″ was faulty, I had error messages appearing so many times when I tried to log on the the intranet and bank sites.

By God’s grace, after a few days, the keys started functioning properly again.

This episode has taught me two valuable lessons — one, do not place water next to your notebook, and two, be more patient.

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.

I believe that the pioneers of information technology (IT) are brilliant folks. And mobile phone makers are fast learners.

Why do I say so? Well, how often do we upgrade our PCs and notebook computers or buy the latest versions of applications and games? More often that we need at most times. The industry drives us to buy the latest even though what we have has served us well and is probably enough to get back for a while more. But, the incessant pace of development compels us to upgrade every two years or even earlier is many cases. This, in turn, ensures that IT companies continue to remain profitable.

Mobile phone makers have done likewise. Launching a new model every other month, users are lured to upgrade their phones. The truth is that just like computer applications, most phones come with new features that are not fully utilised. Many people buy because they want to be seen to be hip and carrying the latest phones. How many really use 3G phones for video calls? Practically none of those I know. It’s a “good to have” feature but not a necessity.

Oh the flip side, how often do we change our television or hi-fi set? My two televisions are eight and 10 years old. But, my phone is four months old while my notebook computer is considered “ancient” at three years of age. Guess, it’s time for an upgrade .

Practically everybody can be a journalist today. With blogging, anybody with an Internet access can give their two cents’ worth online.

This trend has made it even more challenging for corporations — in particular their public relations folks — to manage information flow. While previously, they had to manage a select group of media that covered their beat, now they have to be even concerned about what a hobbyist is saying on his blog — even if the person happens to be a student — because of the speed and reach of the web. Even the slightest information leak on an upcoming product would be greatly lapped up by other sites and spread like wildfire in minutes.

My hats off to today’s PR folks because blogging has just made their jobs more exciting.

Last Saturday, my family joined 55,000 others in the packed National Stadium to watch Singapore play Malaysia in the Asean Cup semi-final.

The atmosphere was akin to the good ol’ days in the 1970s and 1980s when the stadium was filled to the brim with up to 75,000 screaming fans.

While the crowd was there, the Kallang Roar was not quite there. Yes, there was the occasional Kallang Wave. But the roar, it just wasn’t loud enough. There were moments of awkward silence when nothing was heard. In fact, it’s at times like this that I really appreciate the commentary at ESPN and Star Sports.

Guess there’s a whole new generation of football fans that need education, or rather, the opportunity to experience the Kallang Roar again.

Let’s hope the Lions’ Den will roar to live tonight in our match against Thailand.

Watch any English Premier League soccer match and you will notice that nearly every time the ball goes out, players from both teams will raise their hands, in the hope of getting the ball their way. As there are only two teams per match, what this goes to show is that half the people are lying.

Yet, when the ball lands into the net, the hands go up too. This time, it’s to claim credit. Except that the hands that go up are from the scoring team. No opponent would want to claim credit for having the last touch that placed the football across the goal line.

Having said this, I really don’t envy the referee’s responsibility because he only has a split second to make a decision and not be distracted by the wrong claims.