According to a fellow journalist (a very credible one), my previous entry and the iPhone entry are the talk of the “industry”.  I haven’t received any emails or calls yet but we’ll see how this turns out.  I am not expecting anything out of this.  I just blogged what I feel, which is what the whole point of a blog is.

Anyway, on a lighter note, I went to this charity event today organized by Kingmax and they gave this (among other stuff) as door gift.

It was in a small package initially and I had no idea what was it.  I opened it up and found out it’s one of those concert/stadium things where you can bang and make noise.  I couldn’t find how to inflate it since it didn’t come with any instructions (I know I’m jakun!).

Then I found out that all you need to do is smash the small packet inside the “baloon” to cause a chemical reaction thingy in the baloon and it’ll fill itself up with air! I was really excited (I wasn’t a science student, so bear with me) and I’m saving the other one for Eileen to err…”activate” it.

It’s that time of the month again and you’ll see less updates from me.  Blame magazine-closing-week and Twitter!

Great. This is just great!

A while back, I blogged about the Maxis iPhone and bloggers thing.  These bloggers are saying that “wah, for RM9,000 I get the iPhone for free!!!”

Today, a few of them blogged about how Maxis is overcharging the iPhone with their packages.  So have they come to their senses?

FUCK NO!

They say that because DiGi is paying them to write an advertorial for their new free phone plan thingamajig.  They are now saying that the iPhone is expensive and that it’s not worth the money at all.

Exactly two months and they are contradicting themselves already. Great job my friends, GREAT JOB!

Please, does integrity mean nothing to you fuckers?

DAMN I HATE THESE BLOGGERS!

The first entry, I was not happy about Maxis pulling Apple’s credibility down by PAYING bloggers that know shit about the iPhone to blog about it and how “affordable” Maxis’ iPhone plans are.  This entry, I’m just angry that they fucking come to their freaking senses because of money. Is money EVERYTHING to you guys?

I’ve been blogging for a while now (yes, I have an old blog under a pseudonym) and blogging is not the same anymore. I admit that blogging is a very good side income but PLEASE HAVE A BIT OF FUCKING INTEGRITY!!!

No one blogs for the sake of blogging these days, no one.  (Except a few, like Erna and Huei)

P.S. I am talking about the ones that wrote advertorials for both Maxis AND DiGi. If you’ve only wrote for DiGi (like KimCun), I’m fine with that because the package is affordable and I disagree the Maxis iPhone plans all along. This entry is directed to those who shamlessly follow where the Dollar sign is!

P.P.S. I won’t call names here but if you read blogs like I do, you’ll know who these bloggers are.

… and I bought the Bold! This all happened in less than a week!

I just can’t live with the “clickable” touch screen. I found myself using my iPhone more often than the Storm. Why can’t Apple sell it’s touch screen technology to these people?

Anyway, I really wanted to install Windows 7 on one of my computers but I have none that I can spare. The only one that I can really spare is the ASUS EeePC but the specs are really too low to run Windows 7 on it.

Oh yeah. This entry is written on my Bold. Although I can’t type on the Bold as fast as I type on the iPhone, I can still manage. Hehe.

It’s going to be a long week and I hate Mondays. Have a good week ahead guys!

I was at The Curve for an event last month and saw this car.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people? I was early for the event, so I came down from my car, touched the bonnet and it was cold and if you look at the pictures, the owner had the steering lock on, which means that this person parked the car there for quite some time already and with the steering lock on, it’s going to me some time more!

I took these pictures, went to the management office and show them these pictures.  They said, “OK! OK!”.

I went to my my event, then I noticed that I forgot my car park ticket in the car.  I went down to my car, 1 hour later, and this car is still there.  The management didn’t do anything, the car was still parked there.

DAMN THESE PEOPLE! Please be a bit more civic concious!

I don’t know how many of you are going to Computex this year but inspired by bytebot’s post, I’ve decided to write a first timer’s guide.  I know I’ve only been there once but having a guide is better than not having one right?

First things first, Computex is held anually in Taipei and since last year, there are two venues, Taipei World Trade Center, which is at the Taipei 101 building, and TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall.  Both venues are far away from each other and you won’t be able to walk from one to the other.

Let’s start!
Before You Go
The most important thing before you go is to book your hotel rooms and flight tickets.  Everyone in the world will be going to Computex, go figure.

Go to Computex’s official site, register yourself.  You can register at the venue itself but why do it last minute?

If you can, register for a Press Tag.  You’ll get more goodies with it.

Language
If possible, stick to someone who knows the language, i.e. mandarin and Hokkien (they call it the Taiwanese language but it’s Hokkien).  While I’m pretty sure you’ll have no problems during the expo but when you want to get out at night after all the work is done, you’ll need it to get around. Start learning some simple phrases if you can.

Getting Around
Taxi is not as cheap as the ones in KL but for it’s still considerably cheaper compared to places like Tokyo and London. My most expensive taxi fare was about RM20 for a 20 minute drive, including traffic jams.

There are shuttle busses shuttling between Taipei World Trade center and TWTC Nangang during the expo, just make sure you get onto the right one.  There will also be shuttle busses from major areas (where most hotels are) shuttling you guys to the expo.

The MRT system (or whatever they call it) is very comprehensive in Taipei.  Just read the map and you’ll be fine.  Oh yeah, don’t forget to grab a map from the airport.

Get your hotel’s card as well or write it down some where so that you can show it to the cab driver when you are lost.

What To Bring?
Bring comfy shoes. Trust me, you’ll need them as you’ll be doing A LOT of walking.

Bring a laptop, or better, a netbook.  If you can, bring a portable DVD drive as well (if you are bringing a netbook).  You’ll be getting PLENTY of press releases and they usually include softcopy versions of the press releases.  Copy them into your computer and you’ll safe some luggage space when you go home.  Most hotels last year provide free WiFi or LAN in the room so you’ll be ok when you need the internet.  Bring an Ethernet cable with you as well.

Bring a bigger bag, not just one that fits all your clothes.  You’ll be getting SWAGs (Stuff We All Get) when you visit booths.  Some of these SWAGs are really bulky, like the casino chip set I got from XFX last year.

You’ll need a power plug convertor.  Check this site for more info.  If you can charge your mobile phones, gadgets and stuff using your laptop, bring the cables and leave the chargers at home.  It’ll save you a lot of luggage space.

Bring your camera with plenty of memory cards.  I don’t know about you guys but I brought my DSLR with 4GB memory last year and it lasted me 1 day JUST NICE.  So bring more memory! If you are planing to bring your DSLR, a flash gun isn’t necessary as unlike the PC Fair in KL Convention Center, the halls are very well lit.  I’ll be bringing mine anyway, just in case.

Bring a backpack along with you to the expo.  It’ll come in handy for all the press releases.

Plan Your Itinerary
Just imagine, there are two venues and thousands of booths to go.  You’ll need to plan your time there well.  Depending on your agenda (some of us have sponsors’ events that we have to go), find out which booth you want to go to before hand.  You can get a directory at the venue itself, spend 30 minutes or so and study where are the booths that you are supposed to go.  Time is very limited and there are plenty of stuff to do!

There will be dancers around Computex and girls promoting their clients’ stuff, don’t just stand and stare at them, remember, you don’t have time!

You will get time to yourself (depending if you have and sponsored dinners or not), so you can go to some local night markets to do some shopping.  Make sure you don’t sleep too late as the next day is another full force expo ahead!

Currency
The currency in Taiwan is New Taiwan Dollars (NT).  Make sure the ones you bring are NT.  Last year I got conned by the money changer in Bangsar.  He gave me a combination of old and new notes and he said both can be used.  I found out that the old notes can no longer be used anymore, although they are worth more for collectors just like our old notes.  You’ll have to go to the Taiwan Bank to get it changed if you have the old ones.  Taiwan Bank is not like Bank Negara, they have branches every where but it’s not easy to spot one, kinda like Standard Charted Bank here.

Things are not really expensive in Taiwan, a little like in KL city.  A decent meal will cost you about NT200-300.  So just estimate how much you are going to use.  Bring more, just in case.

Others
If you are using a prepaid number, make sure you load enough money into it.  If you are on a post paid plan, get roaming activated.  You’ll need your phone to be working when you are in a foreign place, whether or not you use it is a different story.  I used mine last year sparingly and Maxis charged me about RM15, which is not too bad.

One of the exhibitors told me last year that it rains every Computex.  It rained last year at Computex as well and I guess it will rain this year too.  So if you want to, bring an umbrella.  You can buy it there (it was NT100, about RM10, at the night market last year) but I broke mine, on the same day I bought it.  So bring one if you need it but you’ll be indoors most of the time.

I don’t know what else to add but when I think of more, I’ll update the list.

Drop a comment if you need more info.