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Chinese mobile costs
It’s relatively cheap to buy a Chinese sim card but be careful of the costs. China has roaming costs so once you move away from the city you bought the card in your call costs will increase. It’s still much cheaper than using your home country mobile.… Read the rest
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HTC phones
For years HTC phones have had a habit of heating up and doing strange things when their storage gets close to full – nothing has changed. Before you buy yourself a new phone ask yourself if you really want to end up having to deal with a defective phone down the line – particularly when google doesn’t make it easy to back up android phones and you’ll probably lose data and days of your life as you have to reinstall everything again on the new phone.
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Using a metro card in Shanghai
The Shanghai metro is lovely and most trains have an indicator to tell you which station you’re at and what the next one is – if only London had that! You can get the Shanghai equivalent of an oyster card, which is very convenient. … Read the rest
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Beijing Airport Arrivals Facilities
The arrivals area is vast. There is duty-free when you arrive, there are no smoking rooms and the toilets are western style. You’ll also have to queue for a while to get through immigration then catch a train to another building to collect your luggage (which is where the duty-free is).… Read the rest
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Virgin Mobile
For some reason Virgin Mobile doesn’t get that it’s a service provider. Ring them on a sunday or bank holiday and you’ll find you can’t do those little things like talk about your account or buy a new phone.
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How to make Second Life look better – hide the problems
So, Linden Lab has decided that: Because we want to make it even easier to report bugs, today we are making some changes that will streamline the bug reporting process, allowing us to more quickly collect information and respond to issues.… Read the rest
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Chinese Internet Access
Free wi-fi is in a lot of the upmarket shopping centres, hotels and coffee shops in China – usually you will need to get the password from the supplier. Every hotel I stayed in had free wi-fi in the lobby and a cable for free access in the room. … Read the rest
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Chinese Toilets
Squat toilets are a bit of an eye opener to most westerners. They’re actually incredibly ergonomic for getting the job done but most of us just aren’t flexible enough to comfortably enjoy them. Most public Chinese toilets have at least one (usually more) western style toilet and there’s usually a sign on the door indicating the style of toilet. … Read the rest
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Vision Express
Vision Express will try to sell you insurance when you buy glasses. After seeing the way my local branch people handle the glasses when adjusting them and in general, you’ll need it as their handling is more brute than professional. When you buy your glasses you have 30 days to return them if you’re not happy. … Read the rest
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Using Taxis in China
Always get the card from your hotel with the hotel name and the street map on the back. The name (even if in Chinese) won’t be enough usually. Before you leave for the airport, make sure you’ve got a printout of the hotel you want to go to with the name in Chinese and a map. … Read the rest
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Chinese Hotels
Just because you’re spending over £100 a night with them, don’t think it entitles you to hot water. Out of 4 hotels I stayed in, only 1 had hot water every day and the other 3 ranged between tepid to cold constantly.… Read the rest
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Airport “security” inconsistency
Heathrow will not let you have matches in your hand luggage – only one lighter. Shanghai on the other hand won’t let you take lighters on board and only allows matches. Go figure. Shanghai does have lighters in its smoking rooms.… Read the rest
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Merry Christmas Everyone!
Have a wonderful Yuletide season!
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Musings
Today marks 5 years since I first decided to enter Second Life. This was my first post on the subject all those years ago, at that stage I’d been inworld barely three weeks. Real Life (RL) bands play, people buy land and build houses, become merchants or sell their skills, live happy fulfilling lives… and all of this is true.… Read the rest
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Metamorphosis and other stories. Will Second Life finally become a butterfly?
It’s been a long two years but finally the covers are slipping off the revamped Second Life. Do I like what I see? No. Do I think it’s a good business move? No. Do I think it has a chance of sucess?… Read the rest
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Linden Lab wants to rebrand Second Life. I think they have bigger problems than that.
Some of you may know that Linden Lab is considering a rebranding exercise in the near future. Most likely it will be a concerted attempt to change public opinion of Second Life from being basement dwelling sex fiends into young, cool, content creating hipsters. … Read the rest
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Is politicial opportunism and wilful blindness a prerequisite for being a politician?
Two weeks ago when the story of the unauthorised access of the voicemails on Milly Dowler’s phone because news and the extent of the collusion and corruption between politicians, police and the media started to become known, politicians were nodding furiously and claiming victim status due to what they claimed was intimidation by the media.… Read the rest
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Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister and a disregard for national security and reputation.
The Guardian article on the lack of a proper security clearance for Andy Coulson whilst he was working for David Cameron after he became PM as isn’t quite at the level of Freddy Starr ate my hamster, but what should have been an excellent piece on how the Prime Minister had demonstrated a carelessness with the truth and disregarded the national security policy that is in place to protect the disclosure of information to those who are not authorised to have access to the information, came across more tabloid scandal than serious journalism.… Read the rest
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You know The Guardian’s front page on Coulson’s lack of security clearance? I’m claiming identifying that.
I’ve been hanging out at The Guardian’s website for the last week or so and commenting on various things that struck me as being inconsistent or wrong. I’ve had some interesting times there being a little ahead of the game, and watching how both The Telegraph and the Guardian sourced their news. … Read the rest
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Is Google+ their killer app that removes our final vestiges of privacy?
The basic fact of all life, and with the web in particular, is that if you don’t pay for a service then you are part of the service that is provided to those who do. Advertising is the mainstay of most free or cheap to use services.… Read the rest
