Ordinary Gweilo

It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writiing (mainly) about Hong Kong

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  • EPL returns to Cable TV

    Three years ago, PCCW’s Now TV put in a knockout bid and won the Hong Kong rights to the English Premier League without Cable TV being able to make a counter-bid.  This time round, Cable TV were more prepared, and PCCW dropped out of the auction, saying that they declined to pay over the odds – because they would have to pass on the costs to their customers.

    This is, of course, true, as I pointed out some time back, but PCCW didn’t seem so concerned three years ago when they they paid close to US$200m, and then charged customers an extra HK$150 per month for their EPL coverage.  Without it, they have to reduce prices again, but the new price is HK$148 per month for Now Sports, ESPN, Star Sports and Eurosport, significantly more than the old price for Star/ESPN. Certainly they do have more than just the EPL – Spanish football being the latest addition – and they have an introductory offer of HK$98 and no-one actually pays the full price they advertise.  In a rare concession, they even say that customers who have existing contracts will get some form of credit.

    Maybe it’s all been worthwhile for PCCW because it has undoubtedly gained them subscribers, many of whom will keep the boxes and at least some of the channels (in theory you can subscribe to one single channel, but of course they have better deals if you take more).

    We don’'t yet know what type of service Cable TV will offer.  There was a lot of uninformed speculation (some of it here) about what would be available from PCCW, and it turned out to be about as good as one could have wished (every single games live, some in HD, and some available on-demand), but more expensive. 

    Cable TV are hinting at price increases, but nothing has been announced.  Last time round the EPL coverage was included in their basic package, but since then they have started offering different combinations of channels and it seems highly likely that there will be a premium cable sports package (based around the EPL and the Champions League).  They do do now have an HD service, but I don’t think they have any video-on-demand facility (if they did, it would have to be provided through the converter box).

  • Waggling wings, floating turbines, and dead dogs

    I take the optimistic view on climate change – that mankind is sufficiently inventive and resourceful to overcome the problem.  A recent article in New Scientist magazine (Better world: Top tech for a cleaner planet)highlighted a few interesting ideas that are under development:

    Waggling wings

    Modern passenger planes are masterfully streamlined but the aircraft are still burdened by turbulence that forms as a result of friction between the plane's skin and the air that passes over it. Wind tunnel tests now show that if only a small part of an aircraft's wings were made to oscillate from side to side, the resulting decrease in drag would reduce fuel consumption by 20 per cent.  [UK: under development]

    Floating wind turbines

    Conventional offshore wind turbines are fastened to the seabed with giant thick monopiles. This limits their use to shallow waters, but the strongest winds are often far offshore, where the water is deep. So why not let the turbine float like a boat, anchored to the seabed with huge chains? In June, Hywind, the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine, was anchored 10 kilometres off the Norwegian coast. The 2.3-megawatt turbine floats in 200 metres of water. It will begin feeding power into the grid this month.  [Karmøy, Norway: available now]

    On the other hand, here’s a more radical suggestion – kill and eat your pets:

    How green is your pet?

    SHOULD owning a great dane make you as much of an eco-outcast as an SUV driver? Yes it should, say Robert and Brenda Vale, two architects who specialise in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. In their new book, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living, they compare the ecological footprints of a menagerie of popular pets with those of various other lifestyle choices – and the critters do not fare well.

    As well as guzzling resources, cats and dogs devastate wildlife populations, spread disease and add to pollution. It is time to take eco-stock of our pets.

    To measure the ecological paw, claw and fin-prints of the family pet, the Vales analysed the ingredients of common brands of pet food. They calculated, for example, that a medium-sized dog would consume 90 grams of meat and 156 grams of cereals daily in its recommended 300-gram portion of dried dog food. At its pre-dried weight, that equates to 450 grams of fresh meat and 260 grams of cereal. That means that over the course of a year, Fido wolfs down about 164 kilograms of meat and 95 kilograms of cereals.

    Well, OK, they may not actually be recommending killing and eating them…

     

  • Idiots

    I love personalized number plates.  If you really want to tell the world that you are stupid and vain, what could possibly be a better investment?

    They’re also splendidly banal – I’ve seen "Auto", "King Kong" (the driver of this vehicle appears to have spent all his money on his stupid number plate, and so has none left over for indicators), and “Dinosaur”.  What’s that all about, then?

  • Room for two more on top

    This week there was an accident involving a double-decker bus that toppled over, resulting in two deaths.

    On Wednesday there was a letter in the SCMP complaining that double-decker buses are an unwelcome colonial legacy.

    Double-decker buses are yet another of the mindless colonial imitations of London (the others include wearing black business clothes suitable for cold and damp climates). No safety engineer could possibly argue that the buses are as safe in Hong Kong, where there are more sharply curved roads, more steep grades and higher winds than there are in London.

    The double-deckers are also a hazard to other drivers since they often block drivers’ views of roadside signs and even, for those immediately behind the buses, the signs overhead. It may be that the double-deckers augment the passenger capacity of the buses and may be more cost-effective than single-deck vehicles. But shouldn’t safety come first?

    Not long ago, there was a horrific accident with a double-decker bus on the Tuen Mun Highway, with multiple fatalities.  How many more people must lose their lives before the government realises that these vehicles, while appropriate for London, are dangerous in Hong Kong?

    Eugene Eoyang, Mid-Levels

    Well, well, what a great thinker we have here.  It “may be” that double-deckers carry more passengers?  Surely there’s no doubt about that.  We may have “higher winds” in Hong Kong, but I can’t ever recall a bus being blown over in a typhoon.  We may have “more sharply curved roads” but why is a double-decker bus less able to negotiate a tight bend than a single-decker? 

    Two letter writers have subsequently pointed out that the real problem may be the drivers rather than the vehicles.  Well, yes, that could be it.

    Anyway, it got me thinking about where else in the world you can find double-deckers, and indeed there a few former colonies (Singapore, Sri Lanka and Canada), but they are also to be found in Germany (Berlin), Turkey, China, Japan, and Russia, amongst other places.  So I think we can assume that double-decker buses are used for logical reasons, not to imitate London.

  • Deceptively spacious

    Hong Kong's a strange place, and never more so than in the weird world of apartments. Developers are allowed to advertise the gross floorspace of an apartment, which includes balconies, bay windows, and (most outrageously) your share of the the common areas, such as the clubhouse, gardens, lift lobbies, etc.

    As far as I know, you can't sleep in the lift lobby, so what really matters is how much usable space you have inside your apartment. You might think that a 1200 square foot apartment is big enough, but how will you feel when you discover that it's really only 840 sq ft? That's a big difference.

    That so-called 1200 square foot apartment might have 4 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, three bathrooms, and the domestic helper's broom cupboard. Fitting all of that into 840 sq ft is obviously something of a challenge, and some developers spend much more time on over-blown advertising rather than making good use of the limited space, and so you have to deal with small and odd-shaped rooms.

    Not that you are likely to realize this if you visit a "show flat" in a shopping centre that is supposed to show you what you are buying. When you walk round with 500 other people you probably won't realize what a difference it makes to remove the doors, put in glass walls, and all the other subtle tricks of the developers. You may think the bedroom looks spacious but overlook the fact that they've combined two tiny rooms to create one of a reasonable size – but, yes, people do buy brand new apartments and then knock down the walls.

    Then there's the furniture – yes, there's a bed in the bedroom, but how big is it? That table and chairs? Surely they're not all chosen to make the room look bigger?

    My favourite development of the last couple of years, Palazzo, goes for the typical "quart in a pint pot" effect. Having two en-suite bedrooms (out of four) might sound attractive, but what will it look like when you've loaded the rooms up with beds and wardrobes and other things you might need? Cramped, I fear.  The medium-size apartments have only one en-suite bedroom, and once you have installed a standard-sized bed, there's scarcely room for anything else – and that's the "master bedroom". Needless to say, the other two bedrooms are tiny.

    One special feature is that the helper's broom cupboards rooms don't have windows. Fresh air? Natural light? I'm sure there's nothing in the rules to say that has to be provided, and you have to wonder how many employers will allow their helpers to switch on the aircon.

    Yes, there are views of the racecourse. You could undoubtedly watch the racing, but if you wanted to see which horse is winning you would need very powerful binoculars (or a TV might be an altogether more practical solution).

    Yes they have happy smiling concierges offering an array of services, but who's paying for that? Yes, you are, through the monthly service charge.

    The smaller apartments are at the back (no racecourse view, but Fo Tan Industrial Estate is glorious on a clear day). One of these was featured in the Sunday Morning Post a few weeks ago, with complaints from the lucky gentleman who had bought it "off plan". He seemed to be disappointed that the bedrooms would all need tailor-made (dolls house sized) furniture. It seems that he was fooled by the advertised gross floor space and the show flat. However, I have seen the brochure for The Palazzo and it is fairly clear about the gross and usable floor space, but I suppose if they advertise a 717 square foot apartment you might expect that's what you would get.

  • Spectactorly bad

    It seems as if iPhone applications are the latest bright idea that newspapers and magazines have for generating revenue.  It's an odd fact that people do seem willing to pay for stuff on mobile phones (and particularly on the iPhone), but not for a subscription to a website.

    So I was interested to see that The Spectator has an iPhone app.  They charge just 99 cents for the application, including a 7 day subscription, and you can extend the subscription for an extra 99 cents per week.  Sounds like a good ide – or it would be if it wasn't such a hopelessly bad application. 

    Incredibly, all you get are screen images of each page, and of course they are unreadable if you display a full page.  Yes, you can zoom in but then you can only see part of the page and it's incredibly awkward to read an article like that (scrolling down the first column, then down the second column).

    Aha, you think, I'll turn my iPhone on its side.  Well, yes you can, but now you get a "cover flow" type thing showing all the pages.  Gee, thanks.

    It's as if the person who designed this had never used an iPhone.  At this point I gave up and decided I had wasted my money.

    The Guardian is planning to release an iPhone app, and one has to assume that they'll do a better job than The Spectator.

  • Smelly and deadly

    This may have been reported elsewhere, but I haven't seen it.

    New Scientist magazine reports that Durian and booze is worse than a stinking hangover:

    ACCORDING to Asian folklore, eating the famously pungent durian – known as the "king of fruits" – along with alcohol can kill you. Now intrepid researchers have confirmed there may be some truth in this supposition. It is the first time combining a fruit with booze has been scientifically linked to an adverse reaction.

    One of the strangest signs I've ever seen in a hotel was in Penang, Malaysia.  They kindly requested guests not to bring durian into the hotel.  Why?  Because durian is stinkier than stinky tofu (well, maybe not quite that bad), and certainly less delicious. 

    I never knew that one wasn't supposed to drink and durian, but I'll certainly bear it in mind. 

  • Ah, the irony

    I had nothing better to do today than read this leader in the Sunday Morning Post.  One has to have tremendous admiration for anyone who can summon up such horrible prose when writing about language, of all things:

    Beijing should make sure nation retains its voice

    LEADER
    Oct 11, 2009

    A national language is necessary to ensure that a country’s people can communicate effectively with one another. In China’s case, politics is added to the reasoning: the central government sees speaking Putonghua as essential for a “unified country and harmonious society”. Official edicts and massive internal migration have diluted the prominence of dialects like Cantonese. Authorities would do well to remember, though, that the nation’s linguistic heritage is one of its priceless assets.

    The 1982 constitution enshrined Putonghua as the official language. Beijing’s resolve to ensure all Chinese speak it has extended to bans on dialects being broadcast on many radio and television stations. China’s rising global power has meant a rush outside the mainland to learn it. A growing number of people believe that Putonghua may one day rival the global dominance of English.

    Beijing’s policy has been successful; the only mainland Chinese who cannot speak Putonghua fluently are generally members of remote ethnic groups. But the practice of banning the broadcasting of dialects has been gradually drifting, particularly in Guangdong province. Culture, through the mediums of television, radio and music from Hong Kong, means that second-generation immigrants are even taking up the language. The central government should encourage, not scorn, the trend, as fears about the future of Cantonese remain, as we report on page 12 today.

    Cantonese is rich with history. It is older than Putonghua and has its roots in ancient Chinese. As with Shanghainese, Fukienese and the thousands of other dialects across the nation, it also represents culture. Within its words, idioms and phrases are a deep understanding of heritage and background as well as a sense of identity and values.

    A common language helps China’s people better understand one another. But being able to communicate does not mean the official language should negate the need for dialects. The government should do its utmost to preserve and promote regional variations. If it does otherwise, the nation will lose its voice.

  • Spanish football is too expensive

    Yesterday’s SCMP had an explanation for the absence of Spanish football from Hong Kong TV screens.  The reason, apparently, is that La Liga want more money for the rights than either PCCW (Now TV) or Cable TV are willing to pay. 

    The reality is that subscribers wouldn’t pay much to watch the Spanish or Italian or German leagues.  It’s the English Premier League and the Champions League that are the big draws, and the pay tv companies are willing to pay for those rights.  Now TV has done well from the EPL, and the Champions League coverage finally gives Cable TV some credibility after they lost the EPL rights, but the other leagues don’t really matter.

    They also report that Now TV are finally going to offer an HD version of HBO, and (hurrah) they aren’t going to charge any extra for it.  This follows their decision to stop charging a premium for Now Sports HD, but (as far as I know) they they are still charging extra for National Geographic HD and Discovery HD – and for the HD version of the History Channel, I suppose, if anyone pays for that oddity.  I don’t understand why they don’t simply make a one-off charge for HD to include all the channels.  Too simple, I suppose.

  • Not so smart

    Top notch customer service once again.

    I bought a new phone with a new data plan.  You might think that the new plan should take effect immediately, but for some doubtless very good reason they decided it should only happen at the start of the next billing period.  OK then, whatever, I'm just the customer, right?

    Brilliantly, it seems that they also disconnected my old data plan without telling me.  When I questioned this, they did actually have a sensible explanation.  Admittedly it was based on me being too stupid to realize that my old data plan was not very good, but at least it had a certain logic.  But why not start the new data plan on the day I purchased the phone?  Wouldn't that have been easier?

    As it turned out, they didn't even manage to start the new plan on the date they had told me it would start. 

    Getting rather frustrated by the lack of Internet on my phone, I went to one of their shops to see if the problem could be solved.  Naturally, the first avenue to explore is that the customer has done something stupid (see above), so they went through the setup wizard and kindly changed it (so that it would always connect to their data service rather than asking).  When this failed they decided to check my account and discovered that it was their problem, and soon it was working. 

    All round, a first class effort, I thought.