Tech of the day: to become a salesperson, learn photoshop first

According to LAPTOP magazine, some office depot employees confessed that they would take the original price tag of a clearance item (e.g. laptop), photoshop it to a higher price with the difference being the price of extended warranty and present the modified price tag to shopper pretending they are throwing in the extended warranty for free.

Why would they do it? Well, the margin on laptops are very low while that of extended warranty are very high. I personally had horrible experience with extended warranty sold by another store. And it's quite typical: first you have to go through phone support that put you on hold. Then the phone support will ask you to do numerous meaningless steps, in my case, including reinstalling the OS! Finally hopefully they would agree to have you mail in the laptop for repair. The repair work done on my laptop was just lousy. I can't imagine it is done by a highly paid technician who took his time to complete the work. Since that experience I decided I would only buy extended warranty from the manufacturers directly. In fact, the one provided by Apple is so good that it is one of the reasons I recommend Apple to my friends who are not computer hobbyists.

BTW, there is another article about sales lying to customers that items were out-of-stock if they refused to buy extended warranty. And one advice by that magazine is: customers could lie and said they want the warranty so that the salesperson would take the goods to the register. Then cancel the warranty last minute before they pay. Isn't it sad?

Topic of the day: Pope's take on condom and AIDS

I guess no one could deny Pope Benedict is a lightning rod: his recent take, condom not being the solution to the AIDS problem in Africa, has caused yet another controversy. The WHO certainly disagree.

I do think the media has exaggerated a bit. It is no different from what the Vatican has always been preaching: not having sex is a better way to avoid AIDS.

No doubt about that. The problem is: most human are merely mortal and could not resist temptation even if they want to! So it is still better to promote and get people to use condom than not.

Topic of the day: President Obama and his NCAA tourney picks

Not sure if Mr. Obama is the first President who goes public with his picks but the first thing that come to my mind is: how would the religious/conservative groups react to this? Will they accuse him of promoting gambling? Don't get me wrong: there is nothing more popular than picking the NCAA tourney bracket for sports fan, especially for a basketball fan like Mr. Obama. I can't wait to see how good his picks are!

Topic of the day: Kong Girls

Today I'm writing yet another topic about internet culture. Kong is a popular shorthand in Hong Kong for, well, obviously, Hong Kong! However, Kong Girls doesn't refer to Hong Kong girls in general. Instead, it refers to a class of Hong Kong girls with some common (and bad) characters/habits, e.g. greedy, brand name worshiping, over-aggressively dieting. self-centered....... Check out this special report video:



It brings back some good memory of mine! Around 8 years ago a bunch of unmarried guy friends and myself formed a group and it all started with conversations about bad experiences with Kong girls!

Topic of the day: Grass-Mud Horse vs River Crab

This is a recently created "legend" from China and it is quickly spreading in the Chinese online community (and out of it too) in a viral fashion. Earlier this year there was a campaign to censor content deemed indecent on the internet, which was criticized as an act to suppress free speech. The story was created as a challenge to the authority: can they censor an innocent sounding story like this? In Chinese, grass-mud horse sounds like the famous F-word while river crab sounds like harmony. It's not hard to see what the story actually mean beneath the surface. The term harmony is misused in China. It's more like intolerance to differences in opinions. Check out the video below. The lyric is explained in great details.

Game of the day: Cuba vs Mexico

You all know that I am a huge baseball and football fan (you could tell by the hats I wear) I always feel empty between Superbowl and the opening day of the baseball season! Not this year though 'coz we have World Baseball Classic. There are not many MLBer on these 2 teams but it was still fun to watch. What worries me the most was the attendance seems quite low. I hope they will still play in 4 years.

每週冷飯﹕龍的傳人﹐來點創意好嗎﹖

摘自01年6月1號﹕

最近在香港見報最多的相信非那條值九百萬的飛龍莫屬﹐依小弟愚見﹐這個設計和本港近年種種"娘炳"(香港俗語﹕即土氣十足)徽號比較起來﹐其實不算太差勁 ﹐其中暗藏香港兩字甚具智慧。不過概念上則太封建﹕自古以來龍乃係君主專用的徽號﹐象徵著帝皇的權力﹐以此為香港的標記﹐莫非想表示香港會倒退回極權統治的時代﹖

這邊廂官方努力保存中國傳統﹐那邊廂傳媒卻並無合作之意﹐報章﹑雜誌以至電視台繼續不遺餘力地「輸入」日本漢字﹐近期的熱門是「女優」。明明中文詞彙中有「女藝人」一詞卻棄之不用﹐難道用日本漢字就顯得夠「in」嗎﹖實在令人費解。而該電視台女藝人比賽節目所採用的橋段就更加不堪入目﹐都是抄襲自台灣那些抄
日本的節目。香港的電視人﹕來點創意好嗎﹖

講開抄橋﹐電視台抄完日本還未夠﹐又抄美國的"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"據報導香港版沉悶不堪﹐絕不如美國版的緊張刺激﹑扣人心弦。其實美國的真人Show"Survivor"也是抄自外國﹐但抄得相當成功。香港人則連抄的功力也未到家﹗嗚呼﹗

早一陣子報紙刊登了一個創造力調查﹐發現香港兒童創造力明顯落後﹐有人歸咎於香港教育太著重「死背書」﹐筆者認為教育制度的確有問題﹐不過背書並非主因。我覺得香港學習的環境是要學生全盤接受老師所教的一切﹐絕不鼓勵學生提出疑問﹐或尋求其他解決問題的辦法﹐這才是最大的問題。此外﹐友人提出香港忽視藝文方
面的教育﹐亦減少了啟發學生創意的機會。

不知道香港各位官大人有沒有打算提出任何善策﹖如果情形再不改善﹐大家將會被未來的電視節目悶死﹗這個問題似乎比人人有自置居所更為迫切 >:)

最近電視人質素又成為香港熱門話題﹕亞洲電視引入張永霖及王維基一對孖寶﹐又旋即送走滿口改革的王維基﹐鬧劇過後雖有新股東注資﹐長遠止血仍未見有何辦法﹐始終還是要改善節目質素﹐提升收視方能達致收支平衡﹔無線一台獨大﹐進取心成疑問﹐亦非市民之福﹐故坊間有論者要求亞視交還牌照﹐讓有能者重新開台﹐也不是無的放矢。

總括而言﹐今時今日香港電視人創意依然欠奉﹐而香港有否倒退回極權統治的時代﹐大家亦心知肚明。