最近港鐵多次發生故障導致服務中斷多小時，我目睹火車滯留在吐露港公路對開路軌，慶幸我不在內。眾所周知，由於自由行氾濫，港鐵已不勝負荷，連局長也不得不承認（雖然他的反應是叫港人忍耐多等幾班，完全是無能的表現）
從工程角度看，一個長期負荷過重的系統，出現故障是必然發生的事。加大承受力可作為長遠計劃一部份，短期若不能減低負荷，至少也要遏止增長。左報文匯社評卻不提後者，反而強調港鐵需更新，以及向港鐵管理層問責，兩點都可能有政治因素：傳媒報導過早前港鐵引入祖國製新車，不知港鐵高層是否有人不是西環朋友，文匯乘機摑一巴。
之後報告指原來導致港鐵故障的是絕緣體零件，文匯再度抽水，強調零件來自歐洲供應商。誰不知一天後其他媒體踼爆(港鐵不得不證實)劣質絕緣體實為內地製造。
今次港鐵固然要俾幾個dislike，不過更大罪的是混淆視聽的左報文匯。
Friday, February 21, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Overpaid executives
Just read an article about people shouldn't just complain about Wall St executives being overpaid because Silicon Valley executives are too. I just think the article sounds like sour grapes and probably written by someone from Wall St. For all these years (especially the past few), the banking industry has accumulated enough ill will: Manipulating the market. Getting bailed out by the public. Just to name a few. How could it even be compared to the tech industry? Disclaimer: I have worked in both. It's definitely not so black-and-white that one industry is evil while the other does no evil (Well, that was Google's motto) In fact, most workers like myself are at too low a level to do any evil :P
員工離職的原因
今早才討論過這個話題，之後即在FB看到朋友link阿里巴巴馬雲的文章。老實說我一向覺得馬雲名大於實，講得太誇張，唯有今次我就十分同意，他說只有兩個原因最真實：
1)人工太低
2)感到委屈
HR做所有exit interview，其實只要這兩個checkbox就夠了。講其他甚麼做得久想改變環境接受新挑戰之類，大多是讓大家好過一點而已。(當然，也有私人原因例如搬家或創業等等，兩者都是個人經驗:)
1)人工太低
2)感到委屈
HR做所有exit interview，其實只要這兩個checkbox就夠了。講其他甚麼做得久想改變環境接受新挑戰之類，大多是讓大家好過一點而已。(當然，也有私人原因例如搬家或創業等等，兩者都是個人經驗:)
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Movie time
We had a vacation last week. And it's time to do something I don't usually do: watching movies (6 on the flight, 1 off the flight!) I'll talk about them in the order of my preference:
1) La Grande Boucle (Tour de Force)
The movie is about an amateur cyclist started his personal Tour de France after losing his job and wife. Basically he rode one day ahead of each stage of the "real" tour. Lots of interesting things happened during his tour. I don't wanna spill the beans here 'coz I think every cyclist should watch it. Here is a review with more details about the movie.
2) Rush
I am a huge fan of auto racing but I gotta admit I'm rather disappointed with the current state of Formula 1: there is one far superior car in the field which either qualified for the pole and lead from start to finish or simply make one less pit stop. Having one car winning half of the races and cruising to the championship every year ruins it! I remember it used to be more competitive when I was a kid. Well, I was too young to know anything about the 1976 season described in the movie Rush, which is even more dramatic than anything I could remember: Austrian Niki Lauda was the defending champ. British James Hunt was the flamboyant driver hoping to unseat the champ. His aggressiveness caused him a few races and points in the standing. However, Lauda was injured (seriously burnt) in an accident during the Grand Prix of Nürburgring. He missed the next few races during which James Hunt was closing the point gap quickly. Lauda decided to came back earlier than recommended by his doctor to defend his title. And it all came down to the last race of the season. Fast forwarding ~40 years, 2008 was the last time F1 championship being decided by the last race of the season. Regarding the movie itself, the actors did a great job portraying these larger-than-life characters. And the gf/wives were pretty! There's nothing not to like about the movie.
3) The Lego Movie
Lego sets were toys I played the most when I was a kid (I still play because of my son) So, when the movie came out, it's a must-watch for me. There were sets that I built according to the instructions and never broke apart while other sets were mixed to create something brand new. And these are the themes of the movie: the "dictator" (dad) wanted the former while his kid wanted the latter. Don't we have the same conflicts in the grander scheme of thing too? THE man in the real world do want people to watch the same kind of dumb TV drama/sitcom over and over (e.g. the HK government encourages CCTVB to monopolize the market by trying to eliminate upstart competitors like HKTV) The title of that "theme" song, Everything is Awesome, is so ironic too.
BTW, we watched the Cantonese version (no subtitle) and worried the kids might not be able to understand but so glad they did. And it was so funny when the movie made fun of people drinking expensive coffee sitting next to my sister who does the same :P
4) Thor 2
I would not have admitted watching mainstream blockbuster like this when I was younger :P The comic book-based genre actually has a pretty good reputation among movie critics. Case in point: movies from the Batman franchise were usually quite deep. It seems that I watch at least one movie based on a Marvel comic every time I fly these days: Captain America, G.I.Joe, Wolverine, and this time, Thor 2. Natalie Portman looked gorgeous in it, especially in Asgardian costumes (all handmade by a craftsman in the workshop in London!) And the actor who played Thor was the same guy who played James Hunt from 'Rush.' Man, he was everywhere, just like a real superhero. And the action scenes seem more exciting than the first Thor movie, in which the bad guy was too easy to beat. The plot was also a bit more complicated with Thor needing Loki's help to fight the enemies.
5) Last Vegas
This belongs to the "old man movie" genre in my book. Oh well, I watch those once in a while too (For example, the Oscar nominated "Crazy Heart".) Very simple story here: 4 old guys going to Vegas for an old friend's bachelor's party. Of course there were lots of history between them. And the old friends got involved in a love triangle. Man, I could totally see this happen to my friends in 30 years :P
6) Escape Plan
Just realized this movie was the first pairing of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in leading roles. I thought there were prior cases. Regardless, 2 things for sure: (1) this gotta be my type of movie, (2) reviewers would diss it because the guys have passed their prime. Well, there were indeed a lot of cliches: A prison security expert (Stallone) was wrongfully put in a maximum security prison, which operated so secretly that no law applied there. Needed help from a fellow prisoner (Schwarzenegger) to break out. I found it very enjoyable.
7) The Expendable
I watched the Expendable 2 on DVD recently. It's another movie with both Stallone and Schwarzenegger (and a whole bunch of action starts like Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and Randy Couture. Stallone was the main character though) Very straight-forward story (good guys and bad guys fight for info about material for weapons. Bad guys won and tried to obtain the material. Good guys went prevent that to happen) and old school actions. That means I liked it. Usually the original movie would be better than the sequel so I watched this on the plane. This was an exception: it was rather boring and certainly worse than the sequel. The story has something to do with the American wanna take out a dictator ruling some sort of island. I didn't really watch it except for the "blow'em up" scenes.
I guess I won't have another movie-watching-spree for a while.
1) La Grande Boucle (Tour de Force)
The movie is about an amateur cyclist started his personal Tour de France after losing his job and wife. Basically he rode one day ahead of each stage of the "real" tour. Lots of interesting things happened during his tour. I don't wanna spill the beans here 'coz I think every cyclist should watch it. Here is a review with more details about the movie.
2) Rush
I am a huge fan of auto racing but I gotta admit I'm rather disappointed with the current state of Formula 1: there is one far superior car in the field which either qualified for the pole and lead from start to finish or simply make one less pit stop. Having one car winning half of the races and cruising to the championship every year ruins it! I remember it used to be more competitive when I was a kid. Well, I was too young to know anything about the 1976 season described in the movie Rush, which is even more dramatic than anything I could remember: Austrian Niki Lauda was the defending champ. British James Hunt was the flamboyant driver hoping to unseat the champ. His aggressiveness caused him a few races and points in the standing. However, Lauda was injured (seriously burnt) in an accident during the Grand Prix of Nürburgring. He missed the next few races during which James Hunt was closing the point gap quickly. Lauda decided to came back earlier than recommended by his doctor to defend his title. And it all came down to the last race of the season. Fast forwarding ~40 years, 2008 was the last time F1 championship being decided by the last race of the season. Regarding the movie itself, the actors did a great job portraying these larger-than-life characters. And the gf/wives were pretty! There's nothing not to like about the movie.
3) The Lego Movie
Lego sets were toys I played the most when I was a kid (I still play because of my son) So, when the movie came out, it's a must-watch for me. There were sets that I built according to the instructions and never broke apart while other sets were mixed to create something brand new. And these are the themes of the movie: the "dictator" (dad) wanted the former while his kid wanted the latter. Don't we have the same conflicts in the grander scheme of thing too? THE man in the real world do want people to watch the same kind of dumb TV drama/sitcom over and over (e.g. the HK government encourages CCTVB to monopolize the market by trying to eliminate upstart competitors like HKTV) The title of that "theme" song, Everything is Awesome, is so ironic too.
BTW, we watched the Cantonese version (no subtitle) and worried the kids might not be able to understand but so glad they did. And it was so funny when the movie made fun of people drinking expensive coffee sitting next to my sister who does the same :P
4) Thor 2
I would not have admitted watching mainstream blockbuster like this when I was younger :P The comic book-based genre actually has a pretty good reputation among movie critics. Case in point: movies from the Batman franchise were usually quite deep. It seems that I watch at least one movie based on a Marvel comic every time I fly these days: Captain America, G.I.Joe, Wolverine, and this time, Thor 2. Natalie Portman looked gorgeous in it, especially in Asgardian costumes (all handmade by a craftsman in the workshop in London!) And the actor who played Thor was the same guy who played James Hunt from 'Rush.' Man, he was everywhere, just like a real superhero. And the action scenes seem more exciting than the first Thor movie, in which the bad guy was too easy to beat. The plot was also a bit more complicated with Thor needing Loki's help to fight the enemies.
5) Last Vegas
This belongs to the "old man movie" genre in my book. Oh well, I watch those once in a while too (For example, the Oscar nominated "Crazy Heart".) Very simple story here: 4 old guys going to Vegas for an old friend's bachelor's party. Of course there were lots of history between them. And the old friends got involved in a love triangle. Man, I could totally see this happen to my friends in 30 years :P
6) Escape Plan
Just realized this movie was the first pairing of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in leading roles. I thought there were prior cases. Regardless, 2 things for sure: (1) this gotta be my type of movie, (2) reviewers would diss it because the guys have passed their prime. Well, there were indeed a lot of cliches: A prison security expert (Stallone) was wrongfully put in a maximum security prison, which operated so secretly that no law applied there. Needed help from a fellow prisoner (Schwarzenegger) to break out. I found it very enjoyable.
7) The Expendable
I watched the Expendable 2 on DVD recently. It's another movie with both Stallone and Schwarzenegger (and a whole bunch of action starts like Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and Randy Couture. Stallone was the main character though) Very straight-forward story (good guys and bad guys fight for info about material for weapons. Bad guys won and tried to obtain the material. Good guys went prevent that to happen) and old school actions. That means I liked it. Usually the original movie would be better than the sequel so I watched this on the plane. This was an exception: it was rather boring and certainly worse than the sequel. The story has something to do with the American wanna take out a dictator ruling some sort of island. I didn't really watch it except for the "blow'em up" scenes.
I guess I won't have another movie-watching-spree for a while.
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