11 posts tagged “taiwan”

I had never heard of Intopic until I bought one of its keyboards in Mongkok in Hong Kong. It turns out it’s a Taiwanese firm with a full line of keyboards and mice, as well as other products.
   So far, so good. I need a keyboard around 39 cm wide (this is 8 mm beyond that): any wider, I find that I develop RSI problems because of reaching for the mouse. This one is about one column of keys wider than what I generally like, but these days, in Hong Kong, it’s the narrowest multimedia keyboard money can buy.

   My old one was a Genius keyboard, which always presented a few problems. The first was that it was very easy for things to get between the keys and to mess up its operation. The L key never worked properly from scratch and needed cleaning. The full stop or period key was inexplicably narrower than the rest. But I loved that keyboard because it spoiled me: direct buttons to calculator, browser controls, volume, etc. It was also under that 39 cm limit. It was a pity that it wasn’t that well made: a slightly longer thumbnail soon put a dent in the space bar, and I had to take it apart on numerous occasions to clean it so its keys would continue working. It never stood a chance when some Glaceau Vitamin Water flew out of its bottle on opening.
   Basically, it was the least robust keyboard I have ever owned, dying in about three years. It’s meant to be laptop-style, but if I had a keyboard like that on a laptop, I would be very upset.
   Beautiful to look at, and not bad to use; plus the keys sounded nice when you pressed them. With hindsight, however, it was not the best ownership experience, regardless of the very low price I paid.
   The new one isn’t trouble-free, but quality-wise, it seems to beat the Genius hands-down. For starters, I paid a low HK$98 (plus HK$10 for a USB–PS2 adapter, which, I might add, needed a quick fix from me due to a piece of metal inside being flimsy). The keys feel a tad too soft, not in the materials, but in the springing action beneath them. There is an illogical addition of the backslash key to the left of the space bar, where I expect Alt to be. (It is unnecessary: there is another backslash key beneath the backspace one.) And the extra column of keys to the right of backspace and enter is a bit annoying: this is where Intopic has relocated home, page up, page down and end to, but this seems to be a common design now among narrower Chinese keyboards.
   The good news is that the keys have stood up to constant use better than the Genius; I finally have the luxury of a normal-sized full stop; the build quality is less flimsy than the Genius’s; and it turns out, according to the Intopic brochure inside the box, that this KBD-10 model is the narrowest it makes (39·8 cm). I have fewer hot keys, sadly, and only a couple are for browsing, but since narrow keyboards with these additional keys are hard to come by these days, I am not complaining. My brain is slowly rewiring itself to the new Alt key, and the fact that the home key is in a slightly more logical place than on the Genius (between Control and the Windows start menu keys).
   Genius still makes a multimedia keyboard which would have been the logical replacement to my old KB-19e, but I am happy to have the Intopic instead. Originally I had some doubts but the better quality, even in its first week, speaks for itself. I was lucky, in that case, that the computer mall in Mongkok didn’t have anyone importing the Genius brand.
   The only other one that could have been a contender in Hong Kong was a Logitech keyboard, which was also available here from Dick Smith Electronics at a mere NZ$30. However, there were no hot keys and I noticed the one in stock at Noel Leeming had Arial on the keys: a no-no for someone who detests the look of that typeface family. I was going to show you the picture of that one, but the Logitech website is not loading: not a good sign. (The one at left is from the Dick Smith site.)
   A hunt around the computer malls of New Delhi resulted in nothing suitable: either there were the laptop-style ones with no numeric keypad (since I write in French and German, I need the keypad for a PC) or ultra-wide ones which I could get anywhere else in the world.
   So, the keyboard search was successful: here’s to a reliable Intopic-owning experience. And as the first week has revealed fewer problems than the Genius, I hope the company gets to export its wares more widely.

It’s been a while (a year?) since I gave a TV interview—the al-Jazeera spots don’t count because the question is prepared long beforehand and I have had a day (or days) to get ready.
   Yesterday, Nick Wang fired a few good questions my way, not just on the Republic of China’s anniversary but about my political candidacy, for both Sky TV and state television over in Taiwan.
   Folks, I must have done a few Sarah Palins: providing a single answer without taking intermediate breaths.
   It’s funny what happens when the camera goes on. And you feel compelled to give an answer because you have been taught that it’s courteous.
   I have to say that was the first time I was interviewed with my political hat on, and it was a bit weird.
   I think the last time I talked politics on TV I was making fun of Sen. John McCain in 2006.
   I can talk all I like about publishing, branding and typography (with or without breathing) but these were new waters for me. I know my patch, I know most of my party’s policies, I know what some voters are thinking in wanting a change from the one party called Labour–National, but I can’t tell you who the top 25 of each party’s list are.
   Eeriely, I am campaigning on being an outsider, a reformer, and not part of the Wellington establishment.
   And you know, I actually do have a record of being a maverick.

Got back from the celebrations for the Republic of China’s anniversary. And what to watch? Second season of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles or the Prime TV ad-spoiled finalé of Ashes to Ashes (thanks for giving away three major plot points in the ads, guys)?

Since November, I have received scam emails from a company called China Net Technology Ltd. A page about the scam can be found in the comments here.
   The MO: a company finds a dot com and sends them a letter, saying that another company plans to register the same name, but for various Chinese territories (with the cn, tw and hk suffixes, among others).
   Your expected reaction: you panic and decide to negotiate with the company, because it claims it is a registry service for domain names.
   Their response: they send you a form for the domain names, at outrageous (thousands of dollars) prices.
   Initially, I was so naïve I started talking to these people. They did highlight a few domains our company planned on getting, so we registered those—but through our regular domain name registration service, paying a normal price.
   When they sent me the form, I said, ‘Forget it.’ I knew how much these names were actually worth and how they were probably phonies. Their response, sensing that the deal was about to slip through their fingers, was to say that the company wanting to register the domains was known for porn.
   By this point I didn’t really care.
   It got more suspicious as these emails kept on coming, either from another company or from the same one, but claiming yet another group was planning to register the same domains. I’ve had three more for one dot com and another for a dot org, same MO.
   Ergo: these are scammers.
   I was lucky. According to the E-consultancy page I cited, some folks even get called up by the scammers. I was fortunate that I was travelling when they first emailed me, so they never figured out where I was.
   So while you should protect your domain names, if you are interested in Chinese ones, do not get suckered in by these folks. Use your regular registry service or a respectable company.

I had to scan some pics for a story tonight and added these off my films to the tally, for the petrolheads out there. (As with most on this site, these images are copyrighted. I am a bit more precious about my film stuff.)

   I spotted this Jaguar XJ12 Series II in Jiji, Taiwan. Taiwan is home to a lot of old Buicks and plenty of Japanese-derived models, but a classic British car is about as rare as a virgin in a maternity ward. This XJ12 has plenty of chrome and has the growler on the hubcaps as you’d expect, but there’s a beautiful fluted grille from the Daimler. I can only imagine that this is the form in which XJ12s arrived in Taiwan in the 1970s. It’s a miracle this one even lasted so long.
   Here’s another Chinese oddity just up the road, parked outside the Jiji railway station:

This one won’t be sold for the 2008 model year and is unique to this part of the world. The Ford Mondeo Metrostar is the Chinese version of the CD132 Mondeo, with a more formal grille. As sedans mean status here, the European grille of the Mondeo wouldn’t have cut it. Plus, with the size of the Mondeo, the Taiwanese consider it a large car to rival the Nissan Teana and Toyota Camry. Therefore, it gets large-car æsthetics up front.
   Some cops use Mondeos as police cruisers, while among civilian buyers it’s considered an upmarket luxury car with German roots. That part may be true, but these, like the Mazda Familia-based Ford Tierra (not a typo), come out of a local plant in Taiwan and are even exported to Red China.

I thought communists were more in to revisionist history than democratic governments. From the Fairfax Press:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4316159a12.html

   I am glad I got to the Republic of China to see the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial before this sort of government-sanctioned vandalism happened.
   The Democratic Progressive Party, indeed. Bit like the German Democratic Republic.
   I can’t speak for those inside the Republic but I would say that the majority of overseas Chinese will react similarly to me. Gen Chiang was not Franco or Stalin.
   The DPP calls Chiang’s Kuomingtang (KMT) repressive. I assume they have romantic notions of what was happening across the Taiwan Strait after 1949—or, for that matter, during the Sino–Japanese War.
   I am not exaggerating: in my time in Taiwan in November I met intelligent people who held beliefs that life was better under Japan than under the KMT, conveniently ignoring massacres such as the Rape of Nanking where hundreds of thousands were slaughtered.
   However, I accept that their positive ideas stem from the fact that some Japanese officials in Formosa did try to be good governors of the island.
   Back then, however, we weren’t talking about two Chinas. When 9-11 happened, it’s not as though Californians were cheery because they were comfortable, while the Twin Towers fell in New York.
   While the KMT did its share of demolishing memorials of Japanese colonialism after the war, it doesn’t make it right.
   My main view is that those of us outside need to respect the wishes of those within who participate in the Republic’s democracy. All we can realistically do from faraway keyboards is create a bit of noise when we are upset, just as we might with the War on Terror or other international matters.
   The Republic’s government also needs to know that this act insults those of us who hope that all of China will be ruled by a free and democratic republic, and whose families left because we did not believe such a China could exist under the Reds.
   Our hope was placed in the last free part of China that remained, that part in exile in Taiwan.
   Sadly, we are not voters in Republican elections. Only the inhabitants of Taiwan are.
   What now? Will a portrait of Mao be erected?
   One wishes that the DPP recognizes that it would not even exist without Chiang and the remnants of the Republican government in exile in Taiwan, but this latest incident suggests it does not.
   From an overseas Chinese view, it’s seen as an acceptance by Taipei that the Communist Party is correct across the Taiwan Strait, doing its work to erase memories that the Chinese people can have freedom.
   Indirectly, this is a slap in the face of the June 4, 1989 protesters in Tiananmen Square.
   Rebranding is something to be done carefully, more so when it comes to national monuments and symbols of national identity. Rebrands are meant to unite, not divide.
   Calling the Memorial the Democracy Memorial Hall sounds well and good on the surface—but divisions and the months of protest suggest the movement is foolhardy.
   For me, there was nothing wrong with calling it by its new name officially, while leaving the traditional lettering honouring Chiang Kai-shek’s memory intact. It was a suitable compromise and a recognition of history. It also reminds people of the freedom that Taiwan enjoys and the setting for its prosperity. Freedom, tolerance and open-mindedness are what separate it from Red China—which is still a dangerous place to visit or invest in, at least without high-level official help.
   Years after the American Civil War, there are still states (Louisiana and Tennessee) that call a certain holiday Confederate Memorial Day—and that does not seem to have harmed the Union.
   So what harm is there to retain the Chiang Kai-shek name in the interests of national unity on the island? Does the DPP seriously prefer disuniting Chinese people?
   At best, this was an ill thought through development.
   At worst, this was a desecration and an affront to traditional Chinese beliefs that memorials to the dead should be respected.
   Talk of independence or a two-China system is dangerous. It would be easy for the Politburo in Beijing to raise its voice—without even threatening violence—and Taipei can watch its stock market index fall. And I would hate to see any of my people suffer once again.
   Part of Taiwan might not know of Maoist suffering under the Reds, but I would never wish for any Taiwanese to be directly reminded of it.
   Beijing itself should not cheer at this latest development at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall as it sets the stage for separatism. During 2008, with worldwide attention focused on the Olympiad, the separatist movement might think it could get away with more mischief than usual.

These are some photos from Taiwan, some taken for a friend to whom I promised I would send oddball pics. Let’s begin:

   Jiji is the end of the line if you’re heading south from Taipei, and this is the local freak show. There is a Gremlin (not AMC, but Spielberg) and a caged pig outside. I didn’t go in: the signage was too off-putting. But it stands true that small country towns have some weird things.    Taichung is the second largest city in Taiwan. This isn’t the best pic, but since I was staying in the tallest building in town, the Hotel One, I had to attempt to shoot something from a high floor. Embarrassing admission: I forgot my room number and had to go to reception to ask. The floors all looked the same, but boy was this a good hotel. The ergonomic seats are the best I encountered on my trip.    I didn’t spend much time in Nantou and only had lunch there. Across from the restaurant was this strange furniture store logo. Look closely: it’s a guy with his pants pulled down. No, there is no particular significance to this in Chinese.    I expected to meet some aboriginal Taiwanese in Alishan but didn’t. However, I did see some of their art. This giant wiener is supposedly a guardian against evil female spirits, or so the tale went. Now we all knew what 48 inches looked like.    The chap in the middle was a wonderful man who served us love jade fruit. His aim wasn’t to get tourists: he wanted to make friends, and just hosts strange foreigners like me (and some of the journos who were with me here) now that he’s retired. This was in the Alishan mountains, where the local tourism department really went all out for us and had a photographer follow us around.    While atop the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, I snapped this. Obviously, I wasn’t totally atop if there were a few floors to go. This was from the observation deck—the outside one where clouds literally came at you (no exaggeration at all) and the winds were like, well, Wellington. The winds felt like 50 mph up there and I was worried that it would blow the things out of my pockets.
   What is it with November? Last year I was up the Tour Eiffel, this year it’s 101.    If you’re an overseas Chinese, you would probably feel a bit patriotic seeing this sculpture by Ju Ming of a KMT soldier in World War II garb. The Juming Museum is an outdoor museum that hosts works primarily by Ju Ming, but features other artists as well. Ju Ming seems to have a bit of a fixation on the military and some of his soldiers held sculpted Chinese flags.    Finally, what is a trip to Taiwan if you don’t get to check out the high-tech stuff? The computer-geek district has plenty on offer, including DVDs, but I found the prices of the gear on a par with New Zealand. You can even find old American films with Jimmy Stewart, but if you are after some classic Hong Kong flicks, then think again. I picked up one DVD here (Rob-B-Hood, with Jackie Chan) for a very low price and no, it wasn’t pirated.

This shot was taken inside Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. On the fifth floor, some of the great cities of the world are marked: Alexandria, Melbourne, Athens, Gore … Gore? Yes, Southlanders, the free Chinese have not forgotten you.

Car nuts will appreciate these photographs from Taiwan that I have already put on my hard drive.

   The first is of a Ssangyong Chairman, a car based on an old Mercedes E-Klasse platform (kind of how the Chrysler 300 came into being). However, the owner of this one has decided to add three-pointed stars front and rear to feel like he’s driving around in a German, and not Korean, car. I have to say that for non-car buffs, this would be pretty convincing.    Taiwan, like Red China, is home to many Buicks, but the ones here tend to be the same as the US-market ones (with the exception of the Daewoo-based Excelle, which is not very popular). I saw plenty of old Regals, Park Avenues and even a Rendezvous. Ford is probably the most popular American brand; GM, even through Daewoo, Opel and Saab, is thin on the ground in Taiwan.    A case in point: the Ford Escape is a popular SUV and outnumbers its twin, the Mazda Tribute. As Chinese car watchers know, the trim on these Escapes differs from the ones sold in the US. This one is in the Alishan, used as a police cruiser. In town, there were Ford Mondeo Metrostars. These are the Chinese-made versions, with a different front end, though the rest of the car is identical to the CD132s that had been made in Genk (the CD345 has launched, but I saw none on the streets). A few were used as police cars, along with Toyotas, Nissans, Mitsubishis and Daewoos.
   As expected, Japan dominates the car market, though there are some oddball vehicles here. The Subaru Tutto is based on the old Justy and since sedans are favoured by Chinese buyers, the company concocted this one for the local market. It’s still a hatchback, but features a small bustle, à la Volvo 345 or Ford Escort Mk III.    Given that Japanese cars are so prevalent, I was surprised to see a Volvo S40 in the countryside. It looked pretty good at this angle. Then I saw how it was souped up by its owner with garish wheels and a spoiler. For something that is basically a Ford Focus, the mods were optimistic.
   More as I download the pics and put them into themes.