September 2006 – Vinko’s Thoughts On…

September 21, 2006

Ostrich Approach

Often dictatorship and communist governments would take the “turn a blind eye” approach to social issues. I call it the “ostrich approach”, what one does not see does not exist.

Just this past week the mainland China government passed a law to allow the government controlled news agency full control of the type of electronic information, which are allowed to be accessed from within the China borders, excluding Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Haven’t the mainland China government learned? We live in an information age with a global economy. Everything that happens, no matter where it is, will affects the lives of individuals elsewhere in the world.

It is time for China to open up its thinking and adopt the changes around them (their borders). Their citizens will eventually find out about these changes on their own. Attempts to close off information access to its citizens will only cause them to seek out other ways to obtain the information.

Remember when we were young? Our parents would tell us we cannot do something, it is our nature to want to do it even more. Or may be that’s just the rebellious side in me?

Have you heard of the TOR network? This was a system originally developed by the United States Navy, but now an opensource system/project. This service is now used by journalists, government agencies, law enforcement agencies and many more to avoid detection of their activities on the Internet.

TOR is like the traditional activist concept of “People Power”, it hides your electronic communications among the other users within the network. So the trail back to you is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to follow. More details can be found on the TOR web site.

So yes the latest law from the mainland China government is inconvenient to Internet users in China, but the informed users will have ways around it using solutions like TOR.

September 20, 2006

Technology Not Always the Solution

Having worked in the technology field for the past 17 years and an avid gadget guy, I am the first to admit that a technical solution is not always the best solution.

Some times a pen and paper is the right solution.

Take for example, a widow in Ohio, United States, rented a rotary telphone (remember those?) for 40 years and paid a total of USD14,000.00 for it over the period. AT&T was charging this lady USD29.95 a quarter for the service.

When her relatives found out, they helped her switched to the new digital service. Although the new service from AT&T saved her money every month, she insisted that she wants the rotary telephone back.

The moral of the story is that sometimes the best solution is not about cost savings. The right solution is what fits the needs and requirements of the end-user.

In my experience, the above concept is often very difficult to convince CFOs or Financial Controllers of companies. These individuals job is to reduce cost and increase revenue. It is human nature to take the shortest path or the path with least resistance.

I am not saying that all corporations are as I had described above but there are just too many.

Until more corporations figure out the balance the loser in this game are the end-users.

September 11, 2006

Movie Review: The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift

My Rating:

This evening I went to see the movie “The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift” at GH Cinema Ocean Terminal, Tsim Sha Tsui.

Wow…. Awesome!!

This movie definitely did not fall into the sequel trap. Being the third rendition of The Fast and The Furious series: “The Fast and The Furious” and “2 Fast 2 Furious“, it came through with original scenes, special effects, story and most definitely driving.

I may be a bit bias, being one who love drifting for some time.

Anyone who had not seen drifting this movie will definitely show you what that is all about. All the drift shots were done by real professional Japanese drifters. Even the cast were given a 2 hours introduction to drifting so that they understand and get a feel of what the “sport” is all about.

There were many amazing shots, thanks to the professional drifters and stunt drivers. Being able to pull it off in the streets of Tokyo; a movie production hostile city, made it that much more incredible.

Last year there was a movie, Initial-D about Japanese drifters based on a Japanese cartoon, made by a Hong Kong production company, but this time Hollywood really showed the Chinese production company what Hollywood could do with a similar story.

I strongly recommend this movie to all those who loves driving particularly drifting.

All I can say is that, fortunately I do not have a car in Hong Kong at the moment or drove to see the movie…

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it if you can
	Waste your time elsewhere

September 10, 2006

Movie Review: The Lake House

My Rating:

This evening I went to see the movie “The Lake House” at UA Time Square, Causeway Bay.

A great movie. Although the story is not exactly original, Mark Walters’ 2005 movie, “Just Like Heaven” had a similar idea, but instead with a spirit and a living person. Also one of the movies from My Must See Movies list. The main difference is that The Lake House had two of the biggest stars from Hollywood, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

I particularly like the way the movie was able to keep the story twist and turning, which captured my attention throughout the movie. As many of you know, the ability for a movie to capture my attention is one of the methods I use to gage the interestingness of a movie.

The casts were able to make a simple story idea into an interesting movie.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it if you can
	Waste your time elsewhere

September 2, 2006

Movie Review: Stormbreaker

My Rating:

This evening I went to see the movie “Stormbreaker” at UA Time Square, Causeway Bay.

I can’t believe I picked another bomb. That’s two in a row. I really should stick to My Must See Movies list.

This movie is a Mission Impossible / James Bond / Inspector Gadget want to be. Unfortunately, they did not do well imitating either. The dialogues in the movie were horrible but then they were not total faults of the screenwriters.

They had Ewan McGregor as one of the leading actors in the movie, but his role is more like a cameo, after being killed off almost 15 minutes into the movie.

Mickey Rourke was the main villian of the movie, who barely saved the movie, but he’s an outgoing actor that is hanging by the thread.

They also had Alicia Silverstone to play the pretty girl in the movie, but Silverstone was her typical self as she had always been in movies like Miss Match and Clueless, basically a clueless pretty dogooder.

I had an impression that most people went to see the movie because of Alex Pettyfer, but I did not think he was that good looking. Pettyfer was playing a teenager, which he is at 16 of age in real life, but he has this deep voice making him appear to want to play an adult.

At the end of the movie, they even left an impression that there will be sequels. I gasped at the idea but know that they would not be able to cheat me out of the price of a ticket again.

Rating Legend:
	Not to be missed
	Wait for the DVD
	Buy from iTunes Store
	Rent it if you can
	Waste your time elsewhere