Ordinary Gweilo

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

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  • Hard cheese

    Just a brief rant about something that annoyed me.

    I wanted to go to the cheese shop I have mentioned before, but being in that tiny minority of Gweilos who don’t know Hollywood Road like the back of my hand, I thought I could pinpoint the location using the web.  Not so fast…

    The cheese shop’s website seems to have just one page (that they only update once every 3 months), though it does have an address and phone number.  OK, so let’s enter "108 Hollywood Road" into the search at ypmap.com.  Doesn’t exist, according to them.  It would be helpful if it displayed the part of Hollywood Road where it would be (if it existed), but no they don’t do that and instead it just tells you that there are no search results.  Hopeless – haven’t they ever heard of "fuzzy logic"?

    There is a website for the restaurant next door, also located at this non-existent address in Hollywood Road.  This does have a map, but one that seems pretty useless to me – how can you have a map that doesn’t even show any MTR stations?  And no Chinese version, either.  What’s that all about, then?   

    Cheese v.good, though.

  • The Economist on Oasis

    I must have been busy, because I seem to have only just got round to reading The Economist from 2 weeks ago, which has an article about Oasis Hong Kong Airways (Fare game):

    Part of the formula is familiar: flying one type of aircraft to reduce maintenance costs, landing at second-division airports, vigorous outsourcing and so on. But translating the low-cost model to long-haul markets is hard. Airliners are already in the air much of the time, reducing the scope to work them harder. Rules on night flights and rest periods for cabin crew stretch turnaround times. And passengers enduring a 12-hour flight are less willing to skimp on food and legroom.

    Setting up a long-haul network also takes tiresome negotiations with aviation authorities in many countries. Oasis’s inaugural flight was cancelled because it did not have rights to fly over Russian airspace. Most long-haul routes still rely on connecting traffic to fill seats, whereas low-cost airlines offer point-to-point routes.

    High-paying business-class passengers at the front of the aircraft enable established carriers to compete fiercely on bargains at the back. According to Nigel Dennis of the University of Westminster, the best that low-cost airlines can hope for on an all-economy long-haul service is a slender 20% price advantage over the established carriers.

    “We ran the numbers for an economy service and they didn’t add up,” agrees Stephen Miller, chief executive of Oasis. His answer is to combine a low-cost approach with a continued focus on high-margin activities where there is more fat to trim. Oasis’s business-class service accounts for just over one-fifth of seat capacity and 60% of revenues. Cargo, traditionally disregarded by low-cost carriers in short-haul markets, brings in another 15-20%.

    [..]

    For bigger carriers, the new entrants are not yet much of a threat. The most profitable business-class travellers will be loth to give up either frequent-flyer miles or the convenience of a full timetable. But the cheaper long-haul alternatives inject more urgency into the big carriers’ efforts to cut costs. Mr Laker would surely have been pleased by that.

    Hard to argue with any of that, unlike most of the rubbish one reads in lesser publications.  It seems to reinforce what I keep saying, namely that the key to success for Oasis will be to sell enough business class seats.  The Economist is correct that it won’t be attractive to everyone, but for anyone who travels in Premium Economy on Virgin or BA (and now on Air New Zealand as well), Business Class on Oasis should be worth considering.

    However, it seems that sales are not going very well (as I mentioned previously), so they are trying to do something about it – their latest offer is that if you buy a return Business Class ticket to London, they will give you another one free.  This isn’t available with their cheapest fare, and you have to add on the various taxes and surcharges (for both tickets), so it isn’t quite as cheap as it might appear at first, but it’s not a bad deal.  They also have another offer of a free child ticket with each adult ticket, in both classes, and this does seem to be available with the cheapest Business Class fare.

    They have just agreed to buy 3 more planes, 747-400s again, this time from Japanese Airline ANA, presumably for the services they have already announced to the States, so I think we can assume that they are going to be around for a while.  I hope they succeed.   

  • Free doesn’t mean worthless

    I found this article (The Importance Of Zero In Destroying The Scarcity Myth Of Economics) and the subsequent debate about how to earn revenue from recorded music, quite fascinating:

    So, for example, basic economics tells you that a free market will push prices towards their marginal costs. If their marginal costs are zero (as is the case with digital goods and intellectual property), then it says that price will get pushed towards zero. However, this makes people upset, and makes them suggest the model is broken when a zero is applied. They see a result where there is no scarcity, and it doesn’t make sense to them since they’ve always understood economics in the context of scarcity.

    However, the point is that if you understand the zero, there’s nothing to worry about and the model works perfectly. It just requires a recognition that the scarcity doesn’t exist. Instead, you have abundance. You can have as much content as you need — and in that world, it makes perfect sense that there’s no costs, because without scarcity there need not be a cost. Supply is infinite, and price is zero. That does not mean, however, that there’s no business. Instead, it just means you need to flip the equation and use the zero to your advantage.

    What struck me about many of the comments is that people seem unable to distinguish between cost and value.  The fact that the cost of distributing music (or video) via the Internet is close to zero does not mean that this content has no value. 

    What about shareware?  People pay for that voluntarily. Or National Public Radio in the States, which is distributed free of charge, and funded in part by donations.  In other words, people are willing to pay for a service which they could get for free. 

    If this works, the record companies really could become redundant.  You have to ask what value they are adding if artists can promote themselves on MySpace and elsewhere and then make music available for download.  Of course those big companies won’t give up without a fight, and DRM is one weapon they will use. but perhaps they are just putting off the inevitable.    

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  • It’s not working

    This letter (DVD Drama – subscription required) in the Sunday Morning Post caught my eye:

    My family tries to abide by the laws. We buy our movies at reputable stores and buy reputable DVD players at reputable stores. Our latest purchase was an LG system from Fortress in South Horizons. We bought our latest slew of VCDs and DVDs at HMV in Central.

    About 20 per cent of the discs we have bought cannot be played on our LG player. In some cases the unit displays a notice saying that the disc is not licensed for the same region as the equipment. I have also bought series such as The Sopranos over the internet that the LG player will not play, even though my previous system did.

    I don’t understand how I can buy a reputable brand player from a reputable brand store, and that player won’t play a movie I bought from a reputable brand store (LG, Fortress and HMV respectively). More specifically, I don’t understand how Fortress and/or HMV can sell me such products.

    I am confident I am not the only person to have experienced these problems.

    HMV and Fortress should make some effort to sort this problem out. One or both are likely doing something wrong and we, your customers, are giving you our good money for no value.

    Inadvertently, I and other customers like me have probably committed criminal acts in total innocence, thinking we were safe relying on reputable brands. I should point out there are more than just Fortress and HMV that could be included. Fortress and HMV are simply the biggest names involved.

    GREGORY PEK, Happy Valley

    This is a strange one.  Actually, both HMV & Fortress are trying to help consumers by giving them more choice, but it’s very possible for people to be caught out.  The villains of the piece are actually the big companies that own and distribute movies, who insisted that region codes be implemented before they graciously allowed us to buy DVDs rather than VHS tapes (or laser discs)

    If you were buying equivalent products in the UK you would almost certainly get a DVD player that would only play ‘Region 2’ DVDs, and all the DVDs in HMV would be "Region 2" as well, so you probably wouldn’t notice what was going on.

    By the same token, DVDs and Players sold in Hong Kong should be "Region 3" – but that was never going to work, what with China being in "Region 6" and many UK and US releases never making it to Hong Kong except with imports.  Hence it is very common to find "region free" players on sale here, and it’s also easy to buy DVDs from other regions (though they should really be clearly labelled as such). 

    The problem is that you may not even realize that you had bought a region-free DVD player, and as Mr Pek has discovered, the catch is that if you inadvertently replace it with one that is only for "Region 3" then you won’t be able to play the DVDs you own (or buy).  The DVD player is not faulty, so good luck with getting Fortress to do anything about that! 

    I did once take back a DVD player that refused to play DVDs from other regions, but I had specifically checked that it had this feature before purchasing, and they happily replaced it (with the same model), but I also know that not all DVD players are region-free.

    According to that Wikipedia article, DVD players sold in Australia and New Zealand will also be region-free, which I didn’t know.  In the UK and States it is possible to buy region-free players, but usually this means that it has either been modified or it comes from a less well-known brand made in this part of the world.

    This is, of course, one of the many reasons why I have no sympathy with the big ‘entertainment’ companies when they complain about piracy.  Here we have a prime example of a consumer who has purchased legitimate products from large (and reputable) retailers and yet has problems that he wouldn’t be facing if he had downloaded the movies illegally or bought pirate DVDs.

  • Wishful thinking?

    I see that the airport at the Gold Coast is touting for business, and they seem to be making eyes at Oasis.   

    Actually, it makes perfect sense for a budget airline to fly to "second tier" airports that will offer them a good deal – that’s certainly what Ryanair do in Europe.  Except that I don’t think Oasis is Ryanair – for example, Oasis are flying 747-400s to London, whereas Ryanair operate 737s on flights lasting an hour or two.   

    Also, it’s hard to see there being huge demand.  Cathay operate a curious daily service to Cairns and Brisbane using A330 aircraft, and Qantas have a direct flights to Brisbane 4 days a week using a 767.  The article says that 

    Tourism bosses say demand is strong for direct international flights to the Coast because 45 per cent of all international visitors arriving in Brisbane come [to the Gold Coast].

    Let’s see – that’s 45% of the passengers on 4 flights a week on Qantas and let’s say 5 flights a week on Cathay.  That’s not enough to fill a 747, and that 45% may be optimistic as a target because for some parts of the Gold Coast, it’s probably quicker to get to Brisbane than the Gold Coast airport.  So it hardly seems like a compelling case.

    Anyway, didn’t Qantas set up Australian Airlines as a low-cost carrier to fly from Queensland to Asia (after Ansett went bust)?  They seem to have given up on it and abandoned the Australian Airlines concept (though they do still operate the same routes under the Qantas name).

    I’d expect Oasis to concentrate on routes with more demand, such as North America and Europe, and so I think that this other article is also somewhat premature (at best).   

  • A small variance

    It’s hardly unknown for a government to have a giveaway budget just before an election.  Yesterday there were all sorts of tax cuts and rebates, and later this month we have the election for the Chief Executive.

    Except that we already know who will win the election, and this "bonanza" ought to be the cause of some embarrassment to the government. 

    After all, it was only a few months ago that they were saying that we had a big problem with the budget deficit and needed a Goods & Services Tax (GST) to sort things out.  At that time they were predicting that this year’s budget surplus would be only HK$5.5bn, and that in years when the economy was weaker there would be a deficit.

    Yet here we are with a HK$55bn surplus, and forecasts that this will continue for the next few years. 

    The government will give most people back 50% of the salaries tax they have just paid, and there are also some fairly modest reductions in the rates of salaries tax that will mainly benefit the "middle classes".  Those on the very highest incomes will benefit the least, because the "standard rate" of 16% remains unchanged.

    If the latest forecasts are correct, we can surely expect further cuts in salaries tax, and I do hope this is the last we hear about GST.

    Jake van der Kamp has more facts and figures (subscription required)

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  • In a clear plastic bag

    Last summer, the UK government introduced very stringent rules about carry-on luggage, and although most of these have been relaxed, liquids are still restricted.  Basically you can only take 100ml, and it has to be in a 100ml (or smaller) container inside a clear, sealable, plastic blag.

    Rather to my surprise, I see that Hong Kong is following suit, as reported in today’s Standard:

    All departing and transit passengers at Hong Kong International Airport will have to place drinks and liquids in transparent plastic bags for screening under tough new security measures to be implemented next month. The measures, recommended by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization, are in response to what are perceived to be increased threats from terrorists using liquid explosives to attack aircraft.

    "As Hong Kong is an aviation hub, we’re obliged to follow their [ICAO] recommendations," Simon Li Tin- chui, chief operations officer of security at the Civil Aviation Department, said Tuesday. "Additional security measures will impact on passengers, but we’re liaising with parties to make sure sufficient resources [are in place] and preparatory work is done to ensure smooth operations." 

    The extra precautions will come into force March 21 and continue until further notice.

    You will be allowed to buy liquids in the shops after you pass through the security inspection, which is very kind of them – have you seen how much a bottle of water costs in the airport shops?  [Update: Details here]

    Inevitably, most people will be unaware of these changes and will turn up with all manner of forbidden items, and then argue with the security staff when they are told that they can’t take them on board.  You will probably want to turn up early if you are flying out of Hong Kong in the Easter period.

    Great…

  • Scary stuff

    I came across this strange story today via the Windows Secrets newsletter (WSN):

    There’s a good chance that you’ve already heard something about Julie [Amero]. She’s perhaps better known as the Connecticut substitute schoolteacher who’s been convicted of "child endangerment." She now faces a sentence of up to 40 years in prison because porn pop-ups appeared on a school computer.

    For background on the case, you can read articles from the New York Times, MSNBC, or SecurityFocus. (Full disclosure: WSN editorial director Brian Livingston is quoted in the New York Times piece supporting Julie. The article at the MSNBC site is also a good read, but I don’t recommend the accompanying video, which starts out with a falsehood and goes downhill from there.)

    From what I can understand, it seems that the teacher knew nothing about computers, even to the extent of not switching off the PC when all the pop-ups starting appearing (because she had been told not to do so).  However, the jury seems to have believed the prosecution’s "expert" witness – who was such an "expert" that he didn’t even check for spyware and adware that might have caused this to happen – and decided that the teacher had done this deliberately. 

    Obviously a felony conviction is very serious, but I very much doubt that she will get a 40 year sentence, and she will inevitably appeal and surely be successful, but it’s a bit scary that the case was even brought, let alone that a jury convicted her.

    Also, it seems clear that the school’s IT department had failed to install or update the appropriate software that would have blocked these pop-ups.  Frankly, even if the teacher had wanted to access these sites (which seems rather improbable), it shouldn’t have been possible, and it shouldn’t be hard to set that up.  It’s crazy to blame the teacher when the school was at fault, and the worrying thing is that there are probably many other cases where people have lost their jobs because something like this has happened.

  • Red packets

    Yes, it’s that time of year again. 

    Unlike my curmudgeonly friend Mr Fumier, I do like Chinese New Year.  One of the best things about it is that instead of wasting time buying presents that the recipients probably don’t want, you simply stick banknotes into red envelopes.  The only remotely complex part is remembering to hand over the right envelopes to the right people.

    However, there is one thing that puzzles me.

    I totally understand the tradition of giving lucky money to children, and I suppose it’s reasonable to extend that to all unmarried relatives.  I also think it’s just fine to give “lucky money” to security guards and waiters who have helped you in the past (and in anticipation of good service in the future), even though this is surely not traditional.

    I also have no problem with bosses giving “lucky money” to their staff.

    What I really don’t get is why you are expected to give “lucky money” to colleagues who happen to be unmarried.  What’s that all about, then?

  • Yellow Saab? Must be a gweilo…

    Sun Gai Gweilo on Gweilos’ choice of cars:

    You seldom see “old bangers” on the roads in Hong Kong. Even the delivery vans are in good nick. But have a walk around the car park at a mini rugby event and you’ll find Saabs, Volkswagons, Audis, Rovers, old BMWs and other Eurotrash. Then take a walk through a public housing estate car park and you’ll see loads of newer and fancier Japanese cars and late model Euro cars.

    Maybe some of the new arrivals or those who compare cars with what they can get back home see a canary yellow covertible Saab as a fancy car.

    Oh and unless you live in Sai Kung and work at the airport, it’s cheaper to take a taxi everywhere.

    Have to agree with the last point.  Owning a car in Hong Kong is an expensive luxury – and unless your company pays for it, or you somehow have free parking, then it really is cheaper to use taxis and public transport, and often just as convenient. 

    It seems that many foreigners coming to Hong Kong can’t adjust their way of thinking to the way things are here, and feel that they must have their yellow Saab (or whatever), and expect to be able to pick their children up from school and park near the supermarket and all manner of other things that simply aren’t realistic.