Magazine of the day: Audiophile (Hong Kong)

If there is such thing as audio equipment news junkie, I would be one. Even though I rarely buy any equipment, I just love reading the reviews or even the advertisements! Those gears always look interesting to me. One of my favourite magazine is Audiophile from Hong Kong. Most of the gears are so exotic (and not to mention, expensive) that I'll never own one. However, the March 2009 issue is an exception: it has a special on complete systems that are under HK$30k (~US$4k) Definitely a good read. I could see 2 trends in this mag:
1) more and more coverage of brands from China. After all, they make affordable gears and they know the taste of audiophiles in Hong Kong and China well.
2) even though most of the systems are still being used with CD players, some are taking PC/iPod into account. And I believe that is the future.

Topic of the day: future of music

I came across two music related stories on Slashdot:
1) An Israeli guy named Kutiman has created an album (or project if you will) named ThruYOU where all songs/videos are remixes of videos from YouTube. Here is one of his video:


2) 17 million people stopped buying CDs in 2008. Well, I am not one of them. I have bought less than 10 since 2005 when I started using Rhapsody. (Before that I used to buy ~1 every week) In any case, no one should be surprised since it is so much more convenient to buy from online stores like iTunes or just listen to highly personalizable streaming like Pandora or Last.fm.

What's more interesting is that there is a common theme in the responses to these stories: music these days sucks. (Someone even posted an audio file which contains 2 songs from Nickelback and they sound almost the same musically. Will talk more about this when I get a chance) And of course there are rebuttals, and they do have some points:
1) most people are "attached" to the music that they grew up with and thus dislike newer music.
2) even musicians that do not keep "pushing the envelope" can make good music. And I totally agree. The best example could be found in blues: a lot of blues musicians are still following the same "formula" that is almost 100 years old but as long as listeners could emotionally connect to them, they are good music. Music can be good for many different reasons.

Topic of the day: cheering for the team that beat yours

Cheering for the team that beat yours is true sportsmanship. Supporting them financially? That's yet another level higher! Here is the story: McClymonds High School from Oakland beat Monte Vista from Danville and advanced to the state championship, which is held in Sacremento (~2 hours away). Due to lack of funding, the team was not able to get there one day in advance and stay at a hotel overnight before the championship game.

Now this is the heartwarming part: People familiar with the area would know Danville is an affluent community. A Monte Vista parent heard about this and wanted to help so he organized fund raising and got enough money to cover McClymonds' cost of accommodation. And they also wanted to do it anonymously.

The story didn't end here though: Oakland's school district learned about this and asked McClymonds to return the money because the district do have enough money for that and would pay instead. Whether this has to do with saving face or not is up to your interpretation. Nevertheless, it is a happy ending.

Music of the day: Revelation by Joe Satriani

This song was voted by Guitar Player's reader as the "Best guitar solo on an album released in 2008." If you think about it, there are tons of guitar solo from albums released in 2008, it is really a honor to win that award. And if you listen to that track, you will know why. I guess the more appropriate description would have been best guitar instrumental track. It is vintage Satch: great melody and full of energy yet sounded fresh enough to differentiate from his old stuff.

BTW, the rest of the awards are not as interesting: so many repeat winners. For example, Pat Metheny and Joe Bonamasa won both 2008 and 2009 in the jazz and blues category, respectively.

Topic of the day: AIG bonuses

As a taxpayer myself, there is no way for me to be happy about AIG employees receiving big bonuses even though the company needed taxpayer's money to bail it out. On the other hand, I have my reservation about the way politicians are dealing with this.

First of all, some politicians are just exploiting this to earn more votes at the next election. Don't be fooled by them.

Secondly, AIG defended by saying some bonuses were given because of contractual obligations so some politicians are suggesting to pass law to invalidate those contracts. IMO it is dangerous considering it is done retroactively. Imagine your own contract with your employer. Is it OK to change the terms without your consent? You probably don't think so. Of course, this is just my layman's way of looking at contracts. A lot of legal experts think otherwise. And they do have a point. After all, aren't insurance companies the best at making use of the fineprints in order NOT to honor contracts? Our government lawyer might be able to do the same thing!

I remember President Obama had problems with bonuses given to employees of Wall Street firms earlier as well. And I disagree at that time too. Bonuses being a substantial part of the compensation was the culture of Wall Street. I felt quite personal about it because when I worked there, my guaranteed bonus was ~20% of my salary. That was the reason why I would accept the lower salary. Can you imagine being denied that much of your total compensation?

Topic of the day: some people are (too) sensitive

Here is the story: a guy who works for a PR firm was visiting his client Fedex in Memphis. Regarding the city, he posted this via Twitter:

True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say I would die if I had to live here!

Then someone from Fedex learned about this and wrote a letter to his higher-up at Fedex to complain about this Tweet.

I think I won't be too happy if someone thinks my home town sucks but I won't react this way either. Seems too sensitive to me. This blogger seems to agree. Of course you would hear a lot of comments about being careful with what you tweet but this blogger has a good explanation: it is easy to take Tweet out of context.

Maybe I have offended some Fedex-er by writing this post already. Ooops.

每週冷飯﹕想做百萬富翁嗎﹖

摘自01年7月1號﹕

"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"在美國推出以來收視一直高踞不下﹐最近新登陸香港亦掀起一陣熱潮﹐實有橫掃千軍之勢﹐歸根究底﹐都是金錢的誘惑吧﹗

上星期加州彩票累積獎金再創新高﹐達一億四千萬美元﹐頓時成為城中熱門話題﹐人人大發富翁夢﹐結果由一位已退休的聖荷西居民一票獨得﹗認真幸運﹗

讀了蘇師父的「厄運、好運與自我實踐預言 」一文﹐不禁莞薾。其實筆者除了贊成「自我實踐預言(Self-fulfilling prophecy)論」之外﹐還贊成「人生零和論」﹕每個人一生的大大小小厄運和好運的際遇加起來大致互相抵消﹐佔別人多少便宜也會被別人佔回多少便宜。

有人也許會問﹕「我一向倒霉﹐怎算零和﹖」又會說﹕「某某如此富有﹐相信沒有多少行厄運的日子吧﹗」其實這個正反映人們只會記得自己吃虧之事﹐卻忘掉自己佔便宜之時﹔相反地﹐對別人則只看到風光的一面﹐忽視其風光背後的辛酸。最近香港金融管理局長任志剛先生接受訪問﹐其年薪雖達九百萬港元(一美元等於七點八
港元)﹐但他表示他不是一個快樂的人。又記得年前美國某電視台做了一個探討彩票巨獎得獎人的特輯﹐發現好幾位得獎人中獎後生活並不好過﹕或者是不懂得處理突如其來的財富而走上頹廢荒唐自毀之路﹐或者是引來一大堆對其身家垂涎的親朋戚友﹐以至終日提心吊膽﹐需要隱性埋名斷六親。「塞翁得馬﹐焉知非禍﹖」

各位朋友﹐如果能抱持「零和論」這種態度面對人生﹐遇到不如意的事情也不用忿忿不平﹐因為將來會有好運的事來抵消嘛﹐我想這樣會活得快樂一點。

現在看來這個所謂「零和論」難免有點阿Q﹐尤其是在當今金融海嘯下破財或失業的人士﹐恐怕不易如此豁達。至於不快樂的任局長﹐在今年退下的消息甚囂塵土﹐不知會否因此更快樂﹖而"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"再度成為話題﹐皆因奧斯卡得獎電影Slumdog Millionaire正是以這個遊戲的印度版為題材。