VEGAS!!!!! CES After thought......

So what's my conclusion from the CES?

Well, something got me thinking. This year, other than Microsoft and Motorola trying to catch up to Apple, it's the Koreans who tried desperately to shine. Samsung and LG had the biggest booths. Even Hyundai showed up with their in-car interactive technologies. You can tell that they are really trying very hard, and I think their efforts are well paid off. The Japanese seems to be, well, given up. Sony had a big booth only because they are expected to. Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic and others are quiet this year. Well, no matter how quiet they are, they can't be more quiet than the Taiwanese!!! Asus, Acer and HTC are nowhere to be found even though both Acer and HTC had major product launches. You know, there were so many Taiwanese visitors at the show that even my Korean co-worker said we could have made a quick one selling 便當(Taiwanese lunch box), but shame on Taiwan. Where's the glory?

HEre!



Taiwanese booths being tucked away at the no-body-even-knew-they-were-there north hall. Taiwan's economy depends on these fellows. Taiwan's success is built on the sweat and blood of these fellows, but that doesn't mean this is all Taiwan's got to offer to the world! While everyone else is trying to fight for a place on the world platform, Taiwan's fighting for the bread crums. As OEM/ODM part supplier, Taiwan will never find its way onto the leading position in any kind of world stage, because this are the screws and bolts, not the glamors and bling stuffs.

Now before you think I am dismissing the hardwork of these people, no I am not. I am just disappointed in their lack of motivation.

While I was walking in the area, I came across a booth of a Taiwanese company that specializes in screen cleaning kit. They have pretty neatly designed products on display, so I asked the staff if they have their own brand. The lady said they do OEM and ODM, and work with foreign design firms to design their products. So knowing their capability in turning out quality products, I asked them why not try to sell to big box retailers and make a name out of their own brand? All I got was "branding cost too much money..." Hello? The last time I checked, that's exactly what the Japanese, Korean and Chinese did, relentlessly, to gain a spot on the world market. Just years ago, LG was being dismissed by Whirlpool, consumers avoided Hyundai and Kia like a plaque, and who the hell is Haier? Today, LG is more competitive than Whirlpool, Hyundai and Kia are known for cheap buy reliable products and Haier is the up and coming NBA sponsor. Where's these Taiwanese folks? Still tucked in their corner eating 便當 because no one's there any way.

I was disheartened.

Then I walked over to the Singapore section where I experienced some very strangely familiar sights and sounds. Ah Bengs playing techno music, I was back at SimLim Square...




WAIT!!!! That's not all!!! I mean hope.

While looking at the more popular section of the North hall where the rest of the world is, here's one interesting booth, a Taiwanese booth.

It's called Bone Collection, based in the town next to where I live in Taiwan. They make neat little silicone collectible accessories, like themed characters to dress your USB flash drives up, or other accessories for your iPhone.

Here's an interesting piece of rubber(no it doesn't prevent STDs). It's for your iPhone4. This thing, when your iPhone4 docks into it, it amplifies the sound by 13db. Oh big deal, my puny little PC speaker can do better. Well, the catch is, this is all rubber, no power, no speaker, no technology and no STDs!









Here are other products from them.















So I spoke to them on these designs, and confirmed that there are indeed designed and made in Taiwan. Wow, that's some serious hope right there! Actually, I don't think these will fly in the US market. It will become a niche, but not a popular item. I think these will do much better in Europe, especially Iceland, and especially if they are made of sugar, but that will be competing against my friend.

Best of luck to them!

At the end of the show, here's the summary of my feelings.

VEGAS!!!!! For work!!!!!

When do you get paid to go to Vegas? When they are paying you to work!

What work? Basically, walk around for 2~3 days of sight seeing and may be do a half-ass report, like this one.

So what is it? Consumer Electronics Show, more commonly referred to as CES, the biggest electronics and technology show in North America. It's quite a luck to get to attend this show because the tickets aren't cheap.





Well, this won't really be like the half-assed report that I am preparing for my boss, because it will be 1/5 assed! No I am not going to write how touchy the tablets made me feel, or how stupid Smart TVs made me look, or how flat my life looks in those 3D glasses. In fact, I am going to show what don't get showed, the bonus my boss has to pay extra to get out of me!



So what that crazy lady doing there? Oh, lets start with the more serious stuff. Here's an interesting packaging/branding solution. It's not over done, no excess packaging material and branded efficiently. I like!





Audi had a booth there showing their dash UI stuffs. Screw all that, I want this set up in my living room! That wood trim on the seat looks delicious!




This is Audi showing their HUD dash displays. It basically is a navigation screen, mapping the graphics onto the real road. It's interesting, but for my who drives with polarized glasses, this will be useless. Can you imaging paying a hundred thousand dollars on something that doesn't work for you?????


Hey seriously, why the f*ck would any one want to see the "3D" version when the real thing is 3ft away? Bunch of retards!




The Koreans are taking over the world by brainwashing people with huge screens with cute and harmless looking Korean young girls dancing like the world is all so perfect and heavenly, then force them to eat only the most spicy kimchi in the world.


Another example of "OMG it's made of empty bottles OMG it's so GREEN OMG it's good for you!!!"


Here's an interesting piece at the Dolby booth.


You know, I thought this is bad enough......






Then I saw this...... Hopeless!










Here's a funny one. This was in the LG booth. This is a prototype large multi-point stylus screen that you can draw on, so everyone picked up a stylus pen and happily drew away. Around the screen are some strange Korean men in black, looking suspiciously. So I picked a pen and started drawing. Within a few seconds, the whole screen turned blue... THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!! Then before you know it, those Korean MIBs snatched the pens out of people's hands, yes literally snatched without saying a word! They then hushed people off while they hit the reset button. Ouch!




Here's a gaming bean-bag style chair with tons of pockets of CDs and powertools?????




Here's Paris Hil... sorry, it's Swarovski's attempt at being relevant to the industry. Seriously Swarovski, you will never get it!




Here's one that I really want to tell them to GTFO!!!


Here's a pretty cool/awesome/over-kill/brutel one.
"Don't Taze ME Bro!!!" This is the extreme version. It's the multi-missile launcher version of the Tazer, which will fire at your poor soul when you trespass some redneck's "property".



Meet PLEO!!!


Why is this important? Because I know the designer who designed this cute little rubber duck.... no I mean dino.

Pleo was a big hit when it first came out, sold out everywhere before Christmas, then disappeared. The company went under for whatever reason it was. This time, it makes a return under new ownership and comes with new features, like learning new tricks, sounds, smell(?) and other neat stuffs, sold separately though(evil).






I swear I thought that's poop, but it isn't.


Sexy naked robot.


Then there's another robot. You know those round thingies that runs around the house annoying the hell out of your cats and dogs? Well, this own will annoy the hell out of your house lizards and spiders!!! This is a window cleaning robot, although I don't see the benefit of it since you will have to make sure it's set up properly and runs well, doesn't save any man power, and in fact, is actually an attention seeking b*tch!



So I went to the Black Berry booth to see the new tablet they have, only to find the booth packed with people standing around staring at the same direction with cameras snapping away. What's going on? Someone just did a face-plant on the steps?

No, it's Oliver Wilde, the girl from Tron!!! Well, she was being interviewed and talked nothing about the products, just "...what do you do in your free time..." and "... how was your flight down here...? WTF, I just want to see the damn tablets!




You know, she looks exactly the same as in TV.


Here's here's here's here's here's my favorite of the show!!! A very touchy device, almost made me horny! It's 3M's multi-touch screen. How touchy? 30 hot points. That means you can have three pairs of hands touching it at the same time!!! The Japs will LOVE it, can you imagine the kind of new-age Hentai games they can come out with this touchy screen??? Virtual boob-grabbing is no longer a dream, THREE PAIRS AT A TIME!!!!





Actually, this will make a bigger buck in China ONLY IF it upgrades to 40 touch points. Why, because every family will be glued to it during Chinese New Year.

HAPPIED NEW YEAR!!!!!

Yes, it already mid January, but it's never too late.



So where did I go during these precious days of freedom? Well, air travel is out of the question since it will be too expensive and congested. It's hard to drive to any where because being in South Florida, it will take about 6 hours just to get out of the state by car. Well, I had no choice since I don't have a boat, but to travel on my set of wheels.

It's winter, supposedly. While the rest of the world flocks down south to catch some warmth, I went in search of the thing that I missed for 2 years. Snow!

Actually, I didn't anticipate snow since I chose to drive to Atlanta. I miss Atlanta. I miss the mountains, the trees, the mt biking trails, the creeks, the food and of course, the people. Having only spent a year in Atlanta, I have retained many friends who stayed local despite the bad times. Also, I found out, after I left Atlanta, that a college classmate of mine actually lives in Atlanta all this while, in the same freaking town!!! So I had more friends than I knew.

So it's mainly catching up with the not so old times. It's a weird feeling being back at Atlanta. Driving on I285, I felt that I never left. Everything is still so fresh, like I was just there yesterday. Some shops closed while new ones opened, but I made my ways around the city like a local, or so I hoped. At the end of the trip, leaving is the hard thing to do. It felt like leaving for a long trip, a trip that may not bring me back again. Who knows, may be I'll get to come back soon.




Living in the same house as I used to, thanks to my kind landlords.





Never thought my car will live to see another day of snow!!! It's white Christmas in Atlanta!

So what did I do while in Atlanta?















One big reason why I decided to revisit Atlanta is due to severe mountain deficiency. It's an illness that is a result of the hopeless flatness of South Florida. Atlanta was my cure.... temporary at least. I actually didn't know it was going to snow. Atlanta isn't known to have snow, but this time, it did. So I took my little coupe with pretty low ground clearance to the northern mountains hoping to get some twisty action. I got more than what I asked for. Basically there were two kinds of road conditions.
1. Plowed road peppered with coarse salt, essentially, it was like driving on loose gravel.
2. Miles and miles of unplowed roads and endless uncontrollable awesome!

It's funny seeing those SUVs and pick-up trucks struggling to make their way through, and me driving this low "sporty" coupe cutting through the tire tracks. Hey, it's not the car that matters. It's the SKILLZZZ!!! Seriously, for those who think driving on snow mountain roads is dangerous... well, if you think so, it is. If you know what you are doing, it's fun!

So here I am, back in flat Florida. Need some Latina curves to feed the emptiness!

The EPIC MENU!!!!!

There have been quite a fair share of lousily translated signage and menu items in China and Taiwan that either arouse the audience's curiosity or turn them away. However being in the states, I notice something on the horizon in the industry of Chinese take out menu.




When I just moved to Atlanta about two years ago, I came across this Chinese take out restaurant that sells Chinese, Japanese (Sushi + Teriyaki and Gyro, not to mention the fried chicken wings and what not). I thought it was one of a kind. The owner was the most stereotypical money grabbing Chinese you can ever meet because he even tried to rent me a room from his house. Why not? It's all legal!

Then a few days ago, I received this Chinese take out menu at my door.

Shanghai and Tokyo, New York style?

WHAT?!

The last time I checked, these three cities/countries had pretty bad war with each other, not to mention the recent clash between China and Japan, plus US having a major military exercise just at China's door step.

Therefore, I call this the EPIC MENU, because it seems fearless.

How epic? Well, it's really not about the cross-ethnic offering that I am most impressed about. You see, on the first look, one will get confused by the title of the menu. Wait till you read what's listed:



I can't really describe this kind of creativity. I can't really rationalize the logic behind these unusual food names. They seem both cartoonish yet somewhat erotic.

Then here comes the big guys, the COMBOS:



Again, it seems that the owner of the restaurant, of whoever created these names, is trying to appeal to a wide array of audiences. The young, the old, the satisfied, the desperate, the humble, and the confident.... With just a few items on the menu, the Epic Menu has indeed conquered the world.

I really wonder what's the order rate of these items. When people order them, over the phone or in person, will they say "I want the Rainbow, eel and pacific", or will they say "Giv'me the WILD and SEXY!"? I guess it really depends on who's taking the order.



Ring ring....
"Harlo Shanghai and Tokyo Nu-Yok style wut you wan do orda?"
"I want the Energy Booster so that I can be Forever Young because I want to be Wild and Sexy in the Veggie Heaven..."
"Ok, you want steam rye or flied rye?"
"What kind of fried rice do you have?"
"We gut pok, chicken and beef, or you wan the house flied rye that gut evalydin?"
"House sounds good"
"Ok 10 minuit, U pik-up or deliverly?
"I will pick it up"
"ok thank you see you later"

Thoughts/rant/whatever.

Here’s where I get all political and critical, so seat and relax while I rant away.

Actually, this isn’t a rant, just commenting different social structures.

One of my main thoughts being through all these places and their differences is not about how the upper class lives. Honestly, big houses, expensive cars, lavish entertainment… how different can it be? I suppose for most people when money is not an issue, they tend to want the same things.

What really made me think deeper is how the lower classes are surviving in different societies.

Let’s compare them.

In the US, and I am being generalizing here, the society is set up such that you don’t have much room for the poor to fight for their livelihood. What I mean is, you can do dirty jobs only to a certain point, because everything in the States has to be within the “System” in order to be governed. You can get hired as a janitor, but you cannot be a free-rolling street vendor because you won’t be able to get a license for it. Sure there are tons of street vendors in NYC, LA and other big cities, but what if you live in suburban Atlanta? You will be arrested as a criminal. So what do poor do? They become dependent on social welfare or become homeless begging for money, not pity.

In Singapore, it’s even worse. You even have to have a license to perform on the street! The government won’t let you starve, but you can’t really do much else about your life either. In this highly competitive society, without good education, there really isn’t much room left to wiggle. Singapore being so tiny and the government pushing for high-tech industries where every staff needs to be highly educated and trained, if you don’t succeed as a student, you are assumed doomed for life.


Not trying to be a economist here (never taken a economy related class ever), but here's my diagram of level of wealth vs the amount of opportunities.

In the US where the economy is built on virtual wealth (a.k.a loans and credits), you can get by with a lot of things as long as you have decent credit. You don't need to have the real cash. Therefore it has a much broader middle-upper income opportunity scale. When your wealth goes down to a level where your credit suffers, it narrows very quickly.

Singapore is where you have a healthy amount of opportunity in the middle and upper class because most of the opportunity-types are concentrated in the educated and trained sectors. The odd job market is very narrow making it hard for the poor to get out of poverty on their own.

Taiwan and Penang, although seems chaotic, offers a wider range of opportunities at the low wealth level because of the lack of rigid regulations. Even street vendors can become millionaires as long as they work hard and be innovative in their process, service and products.

In Penang and Taiwan, there’s the very rich, there’s the middle class and there’s the poor. Each of these classes are striving equally. Well, how can I say that they are all striving? Won’t that defy the meaning of “classes”? I am looking at the opportunities that lie within each class. There’s nothing much to say about the upper class since money does wonders. The middle class in these two societies have many options. They can choose to work for corporate jobs, rent a shop and open for business or become a successful street vendor. During the earlier Asian economic crisis, many Taiwanese who were laid off from their corporate jobs became taxi drivers or street vendors. The society isn’t set up to be rigid. They have options. Where as the poor have options too. If they can get some loans, they can get a mobile food stand and become street vendors. If not, the very poor can collect recyclable waste and sell them to recycling centers. There is always some options for everyone as long as you don’t reject them. The society isn’t as pretty on the surface as the western world, but there’s a lot more hard work and determination because there’s always a way out. In this case, the bottom line is none other than “dignity”. Even the poorest will try their absolute best to work for their living and be a contributing part of the society than to beg. There’s always hope.


Then I started to think about what makes a society complete. What makes life complete. I was being brought to attention about “The Venus Project” where the founder wants to promote this Utopian society where there’s no negative feeling. Everyone lives happily so there’s no war and conflict between people. He also dismisses the current state of society that he claims is run by greed. I am not going to disagree with him. In fact, it is true that greed is often the driver for a lot of major events.

This is when I start to think about what makes life complete, and I remembered the story of Siddartha Gautama, who’s none other than the founder of Buddhism. Siddartha Gautama was born as a prince, grew up in a well provided environment and had nothing to worry about. Then as he became a teen, he decided to leave his comfortable home and set on a long journey with nothing. This was when he experienced the most extreme physical and emotional challenges as a human being. He then sat under a bodhi tree and meditated there for seven years until he became “Enlightened”. One of the his teachings is that in order to have a complete understanding of life, one must experience all the 4 stages of life, which are “birth, age, sickness and death”. In Chinese, we describe human emotions as “Satisfaction, anger, sadness and happiness”. To me, the more I experience the world, the more I find my own definition within this society. It is because of the differences between me and the other individuals, the different lifestyles that we live and the difference in values that we hold that defines us. It creates the relationship between individuals that links and separates. So what will a homogeneous society bring us? I’d dare predict one thing. Depression. Just like how Singapore is trying to create a society with no poverty, I worry about the integrity of the society, because it is often darkness that we realize light, which sets the path for us for prosperity.