Antony’s Weblog

Yes, I am feeling really stupid now because I have to deal with different electricity standard around the world.  What’s the problem?  I have several electronic devices bought from three different countries, i.e. Germany, Singapore and Canada.  I have been living in three different countries in the last one year and I have bought electronic devices from each country.  Now the problem comes…. electric power and socket shape.

What’s wrong with electric power? Germany, like any other EU countries, is using 230V/50Hz electric power. Singapore is (fortunately) using the same voltage and frequency.  North America is a different story; they’re using 120V/60Hz. So my rice cooker from Indonesia is not working here.  My speaker and subwoofer from Singapore are not working either (I’ve tried to plug them into Canadian socket, but the output was terrible).  Last week I decided to buy a voltage/frequency converter which costs me 65 bucks….

The second thing is socket shape. Germany is using two round prongs with or without grounding pin.  Singapore is a unique country because it is using two different types of socket. The first one is the same as Germany and the second one is three prongs, one rectangular and two flat, which is widely used in the UK.  I was lucky at that time because we can buy plug adapters in every single corner in Singapore.  Canada, like any other North American countries, is using two flat parallel prongs with or without grounding pin.

The interesting is that two big shops in Canada don’t sell plug adapters. Well… they do sell it but to convert plug from Canadian plug to overseas (not the other way around).  I was lucky because I found one in a small shop, but it costs 12 bucks for one small adapter. That’s for one adapter, for two adapters 24 bucks, three adapters 36 bucks….

I’ve just downloaded Google Talk, the newest instant messaging software from Google that supports text messaging and VoIP.  Many newspaper and e-news are discussing this new IM software.  After trying this software for two days, I am a little bit disappointed.  It is just another IM software without any added values.

I am using four IM software right now, i.e.:

• MSN Messenger (my favorite one)
• Yahoo Messenger (sometimes using it because some of my friends still have only YM)
• ICQ (rarely using it, but it was my favorite IM long time ago)
• Skype (using it mostly for calling to ordinary phone or mobile phone)

All of them are supporting text messaging and VoIP too. So why should we use Google Talk?  In fact, I am missing a lot of features in Google Talk, like file transfer, white board, webcam, online games and most importantly animated funky cute emoticons.  Another problem, I have only a few friends who have GMail account. It means I have to invite as many people as possible to join GMail (are they willing to join GMail?)

The only interesting things about Google Talk are

• It is from Google (so what?)
• Advertisement free
• Supports the open IM standard, Jabber.

I would imagine if Google Talk is not released by Google, it won’t be so popular.  It’s just because it is from Google, then everyone is talking about it…  Let’s wait for the final version of Google Talk; they might add some more cool features.

Emi is coming to Canada this Friday….  I am so happy now, can’t wait to meet her again.  Actually it has been 2 months only since our last meeting, but it’s like 1 year…. :)    We’ll have some plans already to spend our time in Greater Vancouver for about 3 weeks.

I got two heart attacks in about 1 week.  Firstly, when last Monday, Nokia’s CEO, Jorma Ollila, has decided to left the company and joined the second largest oil company in Europe.  Secondly, this morning I read news that Cisco is targeting to eat Nokia.  What the hell is this?  The largest network equipment manufacturer is going to buy the biggest mobile phone manufacturer???

I am just wondering whether Jorma’s decision to leave Nokia has relationship with Cisco’s move.  I really don’t know what will happen next with the company that I’ve been working for three years.  I hope not something bad, for instance big lay off, just like what have happened to the mergers of HP-Compaq and Oracle-PeopleSoft.

Apart from that, seeing mega-mergers between European and American companies would be very interesting.  I myself  don’t agree with this merger.  At least both companies have different core businesses and cultures.  Unfortunately I am not Nokia’s shareholder, so I cannot say anything.

Once again, I am amazed with what Google has been doing.  I’ve just downloaded their newest tool, Google Earth, about two weeks ago.  After playing with Google Earth for a couple of hours, my impression was just "Wow! That’s damn cool…"

If you haven’t tried Google Earth yet, then you have to see it yourself before you believe.  It’s much cooler than Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth.  You can see our lovely earth from the satellite’s view, complete with impressive globe animation, just like what we always see in Hollywood movies when FBI is chasing the most wanted person in this planet.  Unfortunately, you can see detail views of areas in North America only.  There are though some parts of Europe, for example you can see Eiffel Tower or Notredame in Paris.  I hope that Google will expand it to all other parts of the world, including my home city at 7.28′ S, 110.12′ E.

What’s next?  Since I am working for a mobile phone company, my feeling says that this kind of technology will come to our mobile phones soon.  Later we can combine this technology with GPS…. and…. we can see ourselves from the satellite’s view.  Furthermore, we can track people more easily, for example tracking terrorists (we’ve heard that police has caught London bomber with the help of mobile phone technology).

Anyway, I really admire Google… they have a lot of ideas and innovations….

A few days ago, I read an interesting article from Jeremy Rifkin that compares American Dream and European Dream.  Jeremy is an American who is also the author of "European Dream" book.  What’s this article all about?

Jeremy starts with the fact that America has been a refuge for every human being who has ever dreamed of a better life (including myself about 5-6 years ago).  Unfortunately, he says that America is no longer a great country.  He compares many facts between United States and European Union.  EU itself has been growing as another superpower "states" in Europe.

I won’t repeat all Jeremy’s comparison here; you can read it yourself from the link above.  One thing that I feel just right after moving to North America is vacation days.  I was used to have 6 weeks vacation per year in Europe, and now I have only half of it in North America (3 weeks).  Perhaps Jeremy is right saying that Americans "live to work" while European "work to live".

Honestly, I agree with most of Jeremy’s facts about American vs. European dream.  It is a very interesting article anyway because a lot of people, at least in my home country, are still thinking that the States is their dream land (just like what Jeremy has mentioned).  Many of my friends in the high school and university are now working and living in the States.  They didn’t consider European at all (may be language is one of the problems).

Let’s see what is going to happen in the future… is EU really becoming a dream country for people who wants a better life?