October 2006 – Vinko’s Thoughts On…

October 31, 2006

Hubble Space Telescope

It is hard to believe that the Hubble Space Telescope, a history making astronomy tool, has already been in space for 16+ years (first launch in April 24, 1990).

Although due to the initial optics problem it was not really functional until the NASA space shuttle corrected its lenses on a mission in 1993.

It has served the astronomy community with amazing finds that advanced our knowledge of the universe around us, including the planets in our own solar system.

Due to various problems with on board batteries and gyroscopes the Space Telescope has not been in service since 2003, after the NASA space shuttle Columbia disaster. When all space shuttles are grounded and NASA decided that a manned mission to the space telescope is too dangerous.

Today NASA has decided to pencil in a mission to service the Space Telescope with a Space Shuttle mission in 2008. This should extend the service life of the Space Telescope to 2013, without the mission it will crash into the sea sometime after 2010.

Sometimes it is very hard to believe that within my life time so much technology advances had transpired. Making me think what will another 16 years bring.

October 27, 2006

Movie Review: World Trade Center

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “World Trade Center” at UA Cinema, Time Square, Causeway Bay.

I went in to see this movie because of Nicolas Cage. Unfortunately, even with Nicolas Cage, this movie has very little substance.

I find that the movie is capitalizing on a sensitive subject and event, ridding on the coat tails of the audiences’ emotions on the subject and not the result of the performances of the actors in the movie.

I do not believe the movie studios are contributing any of the proceeds from the movie to charities, but I think they should. As I do not think it is fair for a company to be capitalizing on a disaster, which has such a large global effect.

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

October 27, 2006

Track Day

Today was the first time I ever had a chance to drive a sports car on a race track. For someone who loves driving and cars this is definitely a special day.

I was invited to Richburg Lotus, Hong Kong’s first ever Track Day to launch their status as the official dealer for Lotus in Hong Kong. The whole day’s event was held at Zhuhai International Circuit in Zhuhai, China.

I had the opportunity to drive a Lotus Exige S through a gymkhana (timed slalom course). The fastest time of the three tries was considered my time for the course and was competed against other drivers for prices.

Being my first time behind a Lotus and a gymkhana, I did not win any price to say the least. Although, the experience was good. I really enjoyed the experience and the opportunity to see what a Lotus can really do in the hands of professionals.

I also received pointers from professional drivers from UK and Hong Kong on handling techniques for the Lotus, which was great.

October 27, 2006

Track Day

Today was the first time I ever had a chance to drive a sports car on a race track. For someone who loves driving and cars this is definitely a special day.

I also received pointers from professional drivers from UK and Hong Kong on handling techniques for the Lotus, which was great.

October 21, 2006

CSIs in the Dark

I am sure most of you have seen the TV shows “CSI” (Crime Scene Investigation) or either of its spin offs “CSI: Miami” and “CSI: NY“.

What I don’t understand is why do they always work in the dark at the crime scene? If you have not notice, each time they are in a house or apartment, they never turn on the lights but use their flashlights to search for and find the most minute evidence.

I do understand that the light switches and lights themselves are possible evidences, but wouldn’t they process those first so that they can lite the room?

Another thing is, how come they are not wearing full body suits to avoid contaminating the scene? I’ve noticed other criminalists, the ones who are not the leads in the show, do indeed wear full body (“white”) suits.

I think they should be as accurate as possible for the simple things in the show, especially when some of the technologies used are simply Hollywood magic.

Having said all that, “CSI” and its sister shows “CIS: Miami” and “CSI: NY” are all my favorite TV shows.

October 20, 2006

Penalties to Discourage

If fines are there to discourage potential offenders, then why do they say:

Maximum fine $1500…

Shouldn’t they be posting the minimum fine, and making this amount high enough to discourage potential offenders?

Posting a maximum fine, will give potential offenders the opportunity to say:

Well I can afford $1500, so I will commit the offense

In Hong Kong the Health Department has a hotline for citizens to call to report offending drivers who throw garbage out their vehicles. I ask, what is the purpose of such a hotline?

Is the fact that someone else call to complain the government will automatically fine the owner of the vehicle in question?
How does the government expects to prove that the individual had committed the offense?
How can the government determine who is the actual driver who committed the offense?

You see, it appears that once again the government has not thought though the process before they spend the time to implement it.

Now the HKSAR (Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region) is about to implement a citywide smoking band, but there are yet to be clear and simple published process in place to enforce these band. I hope the government thinks this through and most of all put into consideration the actual individuals who will be enforcing the band. In most cases these individuals will be establishment owners or representatives rather than government employees.

October 14, 2006

Another Attempt from Microsoft

Another attempt for Microsoft to further break the web sites around the world.

Before you start to call me an Apple bigot and start to bombard my Inbox with hate mail, please take the time and read my full article before posting any comments. That’s because as always I totally welcome comments from all my readers.

With the pending release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), Microsoft has published a “warning” on the Microsoft Developer’s Network to web site developers.

Prior to deployment of IE 7, we strongly recommend that you test your Web sites, extensions, and applications to make sure they are ready. Microsoft recommends that Web sites and applications are ready for the release of Internet Explorer 7 this month.

Michael Calore of WIRED has a good article that points out how ridiculous Microsoft’s request is. In the same article there are also a few comments from WIRED readers that I too agree with. I will add my two cents worth here.

Being the largest software manufacture in the world, for many years Microsoft has enjoyed the benefits of the layman computer users’ ignorances of alternatives solutions. This fact of general acceptance through ignorance does not equate to an official Standards.

Instead, Microsoft should use this dominance to come right out and inform the layman end-users that past versions of IE have been flawed and non-compliant to the W3C Standards. With the release of IE7, Microsoft is starting to be W3C complaint and has yet to complete this transition.

Standards are set and outlined by Standards bodies. In the case of the web, W3C is the official accepted body, which Microsoft is part of, that outlines the behaviours of browsers for every element of a web page and beyond.

As Calore and others have said, IE7 is moving towards compliance to the W3C Standards, but this forthcoming release is well behind those of its competitors (Firefox, Safari, Mozilla and Opera) who had Standards compliant browsers for many years.

Microsoft’s insistence of web site developers add conditional codes to their respective sites to accommodate IE7 is absolutely unacceptable, especially for web sites developers who are already W3C Standards compliant. If IE7 complies to W3C Standards then these web sites will just work. The fact that these sites do not behave as expected in IE7 is 100% the fault of Microsoft.

I strongly believe that web site developers around the world should stick to the W3C Standards and use the W3C validators to ensure compliance. Especially for the larger and more popular sites: Digg.com, Del.icio.us, Flickr.com, YouTube.com, etc.

The web site developers who need to change their codes are the ones who are not yet W3C compliant. These developers had blindly follow the behaviours and interpretations of Internet Explorer (IE) and coded their sites to work with specific versions of IE for years. This sort of expectations and demand of the end-user is only acceptable in a controlled environment, as in within a corporate computer installation. Even in the latter case, web site developers should work towards the W3C compliance, since today’s leader can well come tomorrow’s loser.

So I hope that the introduction of IE7 will encourage more web site developers to be W3C compliant. Resulting in web sites and web applications that are truly platform, operating system (OS) and browser brands agnostic, which is my definition of what a true web enabled service should be.

October 10, 2006

Hongkish

What I am referring to is the style of written English in Hong Kong; Hong Kong English aka. “Hongkish”.

I had wrote about this subject back in May of this year. The article stirred up quite a few controversy among people I know and the general public Netizens who read my Blog.

I say “the written English…”, because this and the majority of the previous article are based on signs displayed in public.

Today I saw the following sign on a Star Ferry:

“Do not smoke and put your feet on the bench”

So is Star Ferry Company saying that people who don’t put their feet on the benches can smoke on the boat?

What I think Star Ferry Company wanted to say is:

“Please do not smoke or put your feet on the benches”

Another trait I noticed about Hongkish, is that it is usually the impolite version of the phrase. This is very puzzling to me, especially when the (Traditional) Chinese version is the polite form of the phrase rather than a command like the English version (Hongkish version).

Another sign I also saw within the Star Ferry was:

Please mind a moving gangplank when disembarking and embarking”

I think they meant to say:

Please mind the moving gangplank when disembarking.

When the sign is displayed well inside the boat there is no reason to mention embarking.

I believe there should be an organization formed by the government or the Tourist Association of Hong Kong to correct all these public displayed signs, before they embarrass Hong Kong any further.

October 9, 2006

Movie Review: Click

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “Click” on DVD.

First of all, I want to say that I do not illegally obtain movies or purchase illegal copies of movies. The DVD I saw the movie on was purchased by a friend and lent to me for viewing.

I am glad that I did not spend the, increasingly, expensive theater price to watch this movie. I had heard poor reviews in the USA when the movie was released there. I had already decided to wait for the DVD to be release before watching the movie.

The only thing that saved the movie was Adam Sandler. He was a his normal funny “mature” self. Fortunately, not the “Happy Gilmore” character.

I really do not know what happened to “Christopher Walken“, he keeps appearing in silly roles like this “Morty” character in Click.

If it was not for Sandler this would have been another flop for Sony Pictures.

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

October 8, 2006

Movie Review: The Devil Wears Prada

My Rating:

This evening I saw the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” on DVD.

First of all, I want to say that I do not illegally obtain movies or purchase illegal copies of movies. The DVD I saw the movie on was purchased by a friend and lent to me for viewing.

Without the anchor of the academy winning actress, Meryl Streep, this movie would have been another flop.

For some reason I just cannot get away from seeing Anne Hathaway as the innocent little girl of the “The Princess Diaries” movies. May be is the overly large eyes of her. I did not see her in Brokeback Mountain, but she really needs to get more roles unlike the “Andy Sachs” character to rid that typecast; at least for me.

Yes, this movie does have many nice clothes, but just by looking at the title of the movie, you would have guessed the heavy than usual product placements in the movie. Some of the products placed were: Apple Computers Inc., Dolce & Gabbana, Karl Lagerfeld, J.K. Rowling, and of course Prada.

With all that product placements and a weak story plot, this movie is more like a elaborate commercial than a motion picture.

It is obvious where Fox Pictures found the money to pay the salaries of the actors, but will they [Fox] make a profit, that will depend on how many women wants pay to go see an on screen fashion show.

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