Interestingness Rediscovered

Horizontal and vertical

A part of this billboard sign is written horizontally (the 自助 part) probably due to space limitation (reducing the text size was not considered -- wise move).

But the nice thing is, it works. The two idiograms 自助 represent self-help - 自 for self, 助for help - help yourself. Add 餐, which means meal, we have buffet - 自助餐. Unlike English, written Chinese are made up of words, not characters, which make Chinese written language extremely compact and efficient. Less space, no character tweaking. Let's dig more into this topic...

• Less space: I love her -> 我愛她. Even if we give two English character space for one Chinese idiogram, the Chinese version already takes four character spaces less in such a short sentence. Imagine what will happen in longer sentences...
• No character tweaking: The words themselves do not change. In English: I love her -> She loves me. In English, just switching the perspective already requires modifications on all three words: I to me, love to loves, her to she. In Chinese, 我愛她 -> 她愛我. Flip it, and you're done! Isn't it logical? Isn't it THE way things should be? People always lament about how difficult it is to master the four different accents of the Chinese language, but that is nothing compared with this convenience.

Plus, as proven in the billboard, we can mix horizontal and vertical text direction if we need to. Not that it is much useful, but flexibility and "having another option" are never bad things.

Design and the city

Like any other cities, Taipei has its own share of contradictions. Design is one of them. Design is everywhere in Taipei, at least in the bookstore. Any bookstore, from large chains to tiny magazine racks in our beloved 7-11s, fills its shelves with design-related magazines and books.

The actual cityscape tells us something else. It's not that the streets lack design or style. Taipei has one of the most unique urban landscape in the world - in a true Blade Runner style. Smoggy, overcrowded, filled with primary-colored advertisements shouting at you, nevertheless it is a city for the people who live there. We won't see the evidence of conscious efforts on 'landscape design' except for parks, roads, and office buildings. It is also a city which looks much better in the night than during the day.

The 'design conscious' cityscape in the glossy magazines and books all show alternate realities. They are clean, open, painted by carefully selected colors and textures. There is no ad, unless it is from the sponsor of the publication. These artificial landscape are built for people who STAY there for a short period of time. You don't see many trails of human activities like eating, drinking, or making love. Everything is designed on purpose, and the whole city looks much better during the day than in the night.

Collectively, the design movements show what 'conscious' people in Taipei want to do - build a modern, good-looking, high-standard city to catch up with other major cities in Asia. Which makes perfect sense, except for the last part - to make itself look like 'role models.' That means we see relatively few efforts on architects trying to recapture what makes Taipei unique and blend it with modern design. I understand that the grass always looks green on the other side, but how can we grow ourselves without knowing who we really are?

Or despite the onslaught of 'modern design', Taipei will grow its unique landscape which will be recognized and admired by the very 'models' in the magazines. The whole of Asia is, after all, result-oriented regions. Practicality wins in the end.

* The photo has nothing to do with the texts.

Posture

Theoretically, what lies in the showcase of a department store should mirror how we would like to be in the near, near future far near in the galaxy. It is the mannequin. According to her, what would we be like?

• Hunched
• Bumped
• Skinny
• Bony

In another, politically incorrect term, the future is already here in the form of malnourished African children.

How to walk your dog in the city

Technically it is not about "walking" at all, but still is a brilliant way to solve your dilemma - how to be with your dog while riding a bike - because unlike obedient humans, dogs walk to their own rhythm.

I thought this was the ultimate (and only) way to enjoy cruise the city with your dog - but the above makeshift looks three times cooler (and three times less safe) than that.

Available from Amazon (totally safe: click-ad free couldn't create a proper associate link).

P.S. Found in the bike segment of Amazon.com: what exactly is this about? Better not knowing.

Schaffhausen = shuffled houses = come closer, pay more

SCHAFFHAUSEN (meaning shuffled houses in German, hopefully), a premiere watch company, is tying itself up with National Geographic-esque photographs. At first sight, there is nothing unusual about this combination. But let's think about it for a while - what is common, or the bonding element, between a watch and nature?

Not much. Yes, oceanographers and photo journalists wear water-proof watches with dials and at least three mini watches-inside-the-watch, at least in our fantasies, but that is about it. It is just one of many devices to measure time, among other (and more important) stuff they carry - a Garmin GPS device, Scuba-diving computer, sonar system to track fish/turtle movement, and so on.

But of course we take this advertisement for granted, because this type of synergistic effort can be seen everywhere. The ad also looks genuine. And the whole effort poured into making the advertisement look better than reality, is genuine. The creative team must be satisfied so are we consumers and bystanders. Therefore, this whole thing shouldn't be a big issue. But there is something disturbing which I cannot put my fingers at. It is not the "Fake world" nor "Consumerist society" stuff. Just a tiny issue...why do we feel "normal" by looking at things that are not so?

The "Do Not Touch" sign is not too encouraging - in general, any open area should encourage people to come inside (otherwise we cannot take a look at these photos) but when we get almost close enough, this ad says "sorry, no more." Hey, it is just photo panels, not even real watches. Hmm, before producing watches, were they in the entertainment business? Do we have to buy the watch to have more of these photos?

Google Translation: (one of) the best language learning tools

They say there is no shortcut in learning a foreign language. I agree, after having bought 50+ "secret/dummies/24 hours" books and DVDs on this subject. After all, I learned a simple truth. The skills you acquire are directly proportional to the time you spend, which wasn't clearly mentioned in those learning materials.

We all equally have 24 hours a day, so the real strategy is to blend as much foreign language time as possible into our life. Doing what we do every day using a foreign language is one example. Doing our work and building our personal relationships in a foreign language are the two holy grails, but they belong to another topic. Here I talk about web surfing.

No matter how much we get addicted to visuals and audios, the bulk of internet interface is comprised of texts. Let's read them in a foreign language. News on on your favorite topics works best, because you already have the framework to understand the context. You can safely focus on the devils, the details. The following lists show various tricks (ha ha) I use for studying Spanish. For me, learning Mandarin Chinese is handled by working in a Taiwanese company with Taiwanese colleagues.

1. Change menu language in your computer

This works in Mac but not in Windows. Set Spanish as the primary system language, and if the applications is compatible with Spanish, all menus will be displayed in Spanish. This technique is not for in-depth learning but works as a nice reminder and warm-ups if you are already in intermediate level. No computer restart or software installment is required: it just works on the spot.

2. Read exactly the same content in both English and Spanish

This technique yields the most grammatically accurate language comparison, but the scope is limited and is not applicable to dynamic contents such as newsfeeds (or more precisely, I haven't found one).

Take Nintendo's Iwata Asks (English) and Iwata Pregunta (Spanish) for example. This series of article tracks the in-depth interview conducted by the CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, with key members of hardware/software development teams. They reveal a surprising amount of inside information, which is both entertaining and insightful and should be read by anybody who aspires to be a creator of any sort.

(Iwata asks in English)

(Iwata Pregunta en español)

3. Use Google translation (one word at a time)

The Google translation is a Godsend for lazy pals language learners. As an online dictionary, it has a great edge over other established, "standard" set of printed dictionaries. Google translation simply translates any word as what it means, especially verbs. The snapshots below show the obvious difference. Sure, there is no conjugation information nor example sentences. But it gives me exactly what I need: the meaning. I don't need a small reminder on the entry not being accurate (n or ñ) or a whole topic about the richness of verbs. I just need one or two of the most likely meanings, and Google translation does that job brilliantly.

(Google Translation)

(www.spanishdict.com)

Yes, I meant one of the 500 variations of the verb anadir (yes, sorry, añadir) but I don't want to read through the entire conjugation list until I hit añadire.

4. Use Google translation (side by side)

Copy a block of text into Google translation and compare it with the translated words side by side. This technique works best if the original text is in Spanish, but the opposite works quite well too, since Google's translation algorithm is fairly accurate and let's admit, we are here to catch a series of quick answers, not a precise lesson.

5. Use Google translation (whole page translation)

When reading a long series of text, this technique works best. What we do here is to (1) copy the URL of the page which includes Spanish text, (2) Copy it into Google translation, and (3) Read the result in (60%) accurate English but with a captioned (100%) accurate Spanish (which appears when you hover your mouse over the translation). Get an overall meaning by reading the translated English text, and then read the original Spanish text to understand the real deal. The original images are mostly kept intact in the translation, so it won't be like reading an endless blocks of text, which is boring.

These are focused on improving reading capabilities: for listening comprehension, I will write a separate entry.

How to demonstrate touchscreen device

Isn't this THE way to demonstrate your touchscreen device? Nokia had long been refusing to join the iPhone-esque smartphone bandwagon, but once they have decided to claim their own share, they have poured kick-ass effort (at least in marketing).

If the keyboard and wireless function also work, this mock-up can turn into a makeshift Dance Dance Revolution arcade. Uh, looks unlikely because if they did, there would already be a crowd of teenagers typing with their full body movement, and an equal number of crowd cheering and criticizing their effort. Sorry, maybe it is still half-ass.

Awesome song, aweful video

We will start with this hunk, the reason this entry was created: Elvis Costello, singing Oliver's Army.

I perfectly understand, but still am puzzled; How can the ability to pick musical notes in an unbelievingly beautiful way and the utter cluelessness of how retarded he looks co-exist in a single person? But that is what we nerds are about (Costello is arguably the world's first nerd rocker). According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word 'nerd' evolved from the Latin version of the word 'unbalanced'. True.

The next: Kate Bush, singing and dancing to Wuthering height.

Admittedly, her videos are not awful; they all walk the fine line between clunkiness and classic art, but always tilt one step towards the former. Probably she does it intentionally and I cannot help feeling sympathy toward the director of the video.

Time is running out, so to be continued...

P.S. Shashank put this in his weekly newsletter. The greatest music video ever produced (without music).

SUV + Ecology

This shopping/restaurant complex across the Taipei 101 is called New York, New York - inspired by that song. Maybe not so: to be politically correct, the song is "New York, New York" and the building is "New York New York." Punctuation is an important factor as evidenced by the book (Giant Panda) Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.

In a totally unrelated context, Tokyo has a shopping complex called Times Square. The building is five times larger than its sibling in Taipei, the price of goods is three times as expensive, and it looks twice as cool. But they are probably blood brothers, surely Sister Buildings.

Unlike Times Square, New York New York decided to use all its available surface for advertisement (a single billboard). It is a stark contrast between traditional Taipei advertisement scheme, where all available space is sliced up and allocated to five or more small billboards with every imaginable color combination (primary colors make up the best ones). Sounds very untrue to design theory, but the result defies the theory by creating the most Blade-Runneresque, chaotic yet lovely night scenery in Asia alongside Hong Kong. We can say billboards are what makes the Taipei landscape unique, so precious.

Back to the huge one-piece billboard, now we have an SUV from Audi there. It is an amazing ad, not only because it is beautifully designed but also because it is not ashamed of presenting the product in a non-green, non-environmental, so-1990s way in this hybrid/EV dominated PR era. The car sits on a barren concrete road with manufacturing facilities on the horizon. No human, animal, or even plant is visible.

Audi is not known as a dumb company; they know what they are doing. So what we can learn from this ad is that Big/Heavy/Mileage-challenged/Look-at-me SUVs still sell, a lot, at least in Asia. I heard the profit margin of SUVs are particularly higher compared to smaller (greener) cars, and as a European company surely Audi should be shouting that they are the one of the most eco-friendly companies in the world. They might be making tons of money out of petroleum-wasters and pumping those cash into developing hybrid/electric vehicle.

Is it similar to tobacco companies selling cigarettes to develop nicotine pads?

Flower pots

Taipei is going through a massive expansion of its subway system called MRT. It probably stands for Metro Railway Transit. I don't know. In Chinese it is called 捷運, literally Fast Transit: much better naming. Since the subway normally runs directly beneath major roads (which makes perfect sense), some of the major roads have been stuffed with construction signs for several years.

The most commonly found pacifier for citizens (or those who want to show off their brand-new Mercedes) is makeshift billboards saying "We're sorry" combined with an illustration of a middle-aged construction worker bowing to the audience. It is the standard methodology for similar situations in Japan and was somehow imported here. And it works. A hard-working, good citizen apologizing for causing inconvenience...who can complain against him? The real culprits are behind the doors, we all know, but once we see these billboards we lose our anger, logic, or reasoning. Maybe it is because we are too accustomed to complaining to whoever is in front of us or whoever looks weaker than us, regardless of his liability.

But here comes our hero. It is the flower pot, placed at the pedestrian side of construction sites (I guess placing them against the cars has little effect). Granted it looks more like the herbs in Biohazard (Resident Evil) game series, but greener is always better. And we are getting tired of empty apologies.

 

...Or maybe they look more like the out-of-control plants from The Day of the Triffids.

Mega x 3 Mac

Invincible taste, that is what they say about these two Mega-Mega-Macs. I am not sure about the taste, because it should be the same with any other burgers in Macdonald's (that's what fast-food is for), but I do think it it an innovative product. Inserting FOUR pieces of meat into a single hamburger? That is a new concept.

It was only five years ago that Morgan Spurlock successfully made Macdonald's aware of the negative publicity impact * their ultra-size combo was making, which led to them abolishing the Super-Size option from the menu. By eating nothing but Macdonald's set menu for 30 days, in exchange for turning his liver into foie gras **, he made a hat-trick: a breakthrough recognition, successful campaign, and a very entertaining film.

But our habits die hard. The revenge of Mega-Mac has started with a loud noise. Add a French fries and a Coke, we pay NT$135, which is roughly US$4. That is about the same price as the Venti latte at Starbucks. A humongous size of meal with a price of a cup of coffee! If we go back in time for 30 years and show this image to ourselves, they should conclude the only logical answer to this ad is April Fool's day.

* I am not sure if the documentary raised public awareness, because the ratio of people (including us) say they watch documentaries vs. people who actually watch them must be close to 100:1 or something. Or maybe the "rumor" worked just fine. We don't need many people to try out the information source firsthand.

** Rumor has it that Spurlock ate more than his share (three times per day at Macdonald's + choose Super-Size whenever offered) to exaggerate his deteriorating health and sex drive.

Modem, not modern, but not dead either

It is just a phone in a phonebooth, but it deserves to be part of permanent collections in any museum of modern technologies. First, it is inside a phone booth (rarity +1). Second, it has black, glossy, phone-like earpiece (rarity +2). Third, it has a modem port. THIS is what makes this payphone truly remarkable.

The modem port was created ad-hoc to serve a niche market (backpackers emailing on the road on a shoestring budget), later went public in the hope of getting mainstream, and then when its prime time has come, was completely replaced by a vastly superior "cousin" (LAN port with broadband). In another way, a regular Joe with a stable but boring job (connecting the phone and the cable) one day finds his hidden capabilities when he accidentally saved a young man's ass by routing his laptop to his email server (likely because he needed to file that his credit card was stolen on his road trip), decides to go mainstream, enjoy some high-time and...suddenly finds out his backers, lovers, and friends all have switched their attention to a more powerful rival who seemingly imitated his skills.

The modem port has both heroic and tragic elements inside its history - it not only works as a perfect example of technological evolution that hit dead-end but also as a perfect topic for a five-minute lecture section brought by tour guides and teachers...

But probably the most astonishing fact is that this modem port still exists, and probably works. Blade Runner was right - the future won't appear as an all-reset, start-from-the-scratch reinvention but rather as a dull mixture of the new and the old in chaotic manner.

Schoolgirl syndrome

今日は久しぶりに日本語で。理髪店（とはもう言わないのか）はたいてい表通りに面した壁がすべてガラス張りになっていて、ドールハウスみたいに中の様子が見えるようになっています。ヘアーサロン（とも言わないのか）、マッサージ、それに台北名物、小龍包（ゼリー入りシュウマイ）の厨房はみなどこも透明です。これは要するにどこかが透明方式で売り出して繁盛すると、他も追随して、それがいつのまにか業界標準となる、といった例なんでしょうが、疑問は

• なぜ一部の業界標準となるほど流行る方式が、他の業界にまでもっと波及しないのか、もっと言えばサービス業の標準となりえないのか。実際のサービス携帯を見せて、安心させると同時にちょっとしたエンターテイメントを提供する、ということならもっといろいろな業種に展開できそうなのですが。
• 一部の業界の中では、なぜどこも似たような見せ方に落ち着くのか（全透明なら全透明のみ）。流行るには理由があったはずで、その理由さえ押さえておけばもっと応用が利くはず。

で、その流れに新風を巻き起こすか？と思えてきたのが「ガラス張り」＋「制服」スタイル。店員がただの制服を着てるだけ、のはずですが明らかに（たぶん日本の）女子高生を意識した様子。これがヘアーサロン（もっと時代に適した言い回しがあるはず）業界の新たな標準になるのか、あるいはそれを超えてサービス業界の標準になりえるのか、はあり得ないはずなのだけど、日本以外でコスプレがはやってcosplayが英語の名詞どころか、動詞にまでなりうるなんて１０年前に予言した人はいなかった。なので今予言しておきましょう。

日本を離れて数年になるので、数年前に見慣れていたものがこうやってじわじわと浸透してくるのをみると、なぜか奇妙なはずなのにほっとします。今、日本で流行っているものをみると多分浦島太郎になるので。

Shrines can be glorified while not being glorified

This is a typical scenery in Taipei - a shrine built into an ordinary building. At a glance it looks cheap. Some might even say it is a gimmick. But it is a shrine, in its true sense.

Aesthetically it might not receive great attention. Maybe it won't be added into the World Heritage list. A golden statue lit up by fluorescent lights is not the way to impress snobs cultural critics. But the most important aspect, respect, is always there. I have never failed to notice people paying genuine respect to shrines in Taiwan. They pray for the dead, wish for family health. In this respect, every shrine in Taiwan is genuine.

Inconsistency

In theory, an advertisement should provide a consistent and persuading story which puts us into an imaginary world where everything just works. Therefore, at least inside that context, things always make sense. Wearing an OMEGA will suddenly make you as cool as James Bond! The truth is the other way around, James Bond makes OMEGA look cool, but inside the advertisement there is no logical contradiction - they just do not correct our conceptual mistakes. Ignorance is bliss.

Sometimes even OMEGA cannot prevent the illusion world crumbing apart when the message is incoherent. The below ad works on the surface, but a not-so-deeper look reveals its shortcomings:

• From the top left, it is OMEGA - rich!
• To the top center, it is for graduating students - poor!
• Below that message, it says "Diamond Pen Series" - rich!
• To the top right, 50% discount - poor!
• In the middle, we see a pen armored with small diamonds - rich!
• But isn't OMEGA for the wrist watches? It is still just a pen - poor!

So this advertisement constantly gives us mixed information. Is it for the rich or the poor?

The bottom right corner shows the ad is effective until June 30th, which had passed more than a month ago. Nice touch, now the ad makes even less sense.

Cover song compilations

Note: the title doesn't have much to do with the content, as usual.

The coffee shop I am sitting in keeps playing the same set of songs for ages. It reminds me of the days working as a busboy in one of Denny's restaurant chains in Tokyo. It was around 1991, when Genesis released We Can't Dance. It was a decent album, maybe a masterpiece, but what can you say about listening to No Son of Mine every hour, sandwiched by the restaurant's theme song - "Denny's, Denny's, chu-ru-chu-ru-chu-chu- Woo!" To this day, whenever I listen to No Son of Mine, I can also hear the front manager yelling at one of the underperforming staffs.

This coffee shop does a much better job. There is no annoying jingles and the songs are non-disturbing, e.g. they do not sing about abandonment and child abuse (I guess the Japanese customers didn't understand what was being ranted. Me neither). The songs are mostly covers of 1970s or 80s hit-tunes. Usually the original hit songs are already sterlized, walking the middle way by avoiding controversial topics or disturbing sounds. The remake or remade deletes even more edges, if there are anything left.

This shouldn't be bad, and is happening all over the world, especially in Hollywood movies. Take a proven product, add or delete some flavors, and resell it. Nobody complains and few people lose money. It is a win-win formula, isn't it? Unfortunately, no. The biggest drawback of that formula is, in the long term we all get bored. And we don't even know we get bored until something truly magnificent shows what we were missing, or until we find out we haven't been to local cinema complex for over a year without a particular reason.

Of course playing No Son of Mine + corporate jingle in a coffee shop is a suicidal idea, to say the least. But picking up non-disturbing but original songs can also be a viable, even better choice, which can be done easily. Well, in reality coffee shops won't take that risk (however small it appears), and we do not complain either. It is hard to complain about what can be improved because we don't notice something that we do not see or hear. It is much easier to complain about something tangible that disappeared, like the power outlet for laptops or free coffee refill.

Typhoon holiday as a compensation for lack of National Holidays

Here in Taiwan, two or three times a year Typhoon walks directly across the island causing mayhem, speechless tragedy, unrecoverable loss to the economy, and ... holiday. Schools are out, offices are closed, but 7-11s are open. Hallelluyah Haleluya Hareruya Harrelluyah (the spell checker reminds me of my 5th-grade math teacher).

So we have a few more holidays as unexpected gifts from heaven (Sometimes they hit the weekend. Maybe we did something that deserved to be cursed,) but there is a downside to having extra vacations: fewer national holidays than any place I have been. Taiwan has only four or five national holidays per year. Definitely fewer than ten. So the result is, most people (at least in Northern Taiwan) speak of typhoon with a smile, sit quietly in Starbucks or movie theaters until it goes away, enjoy the precious little freedom, and go back to work/school with a refreshed attitude. All after a supposedly (and realistically) catastrophic disaster. The Taiwanese government does know how to manage people.

Is there anything that Windows does better than Mac?

There is one: Device Removal. Even in the latest version of Mac, OS X 10.6, we need to diligently 'eject' any storage device before removing it from the computer. Wait a second, that was one of the huge improvements (according to Microsoft) when they realized true plug-and-play in Windows, probably back several years ago. In Mac, we still have to eject not only the storage device but also the disc image (that pseudo-device that is created every time we install an application in Mac).

Why? Considering their manic-obsessive attention to details, Apple Computer certainly knows this inconvenience. Why?

World domination: Spanish

It has been a while since my last post due to some personal issues.
Pure laziness.

In parallel to my love/hate relationship with learning Traditional Chinese, I have been studying Spanish for almost two years. Why Spanish? Because my ultimate goal is to dominate the world. In that case, what else is there to do than acquiring language skills? I am on the way to master two of the most spoken languages, English and Chinese. The next logical step is Spanish. I am not sure if it is the most used language next to English and Chinese (Arabic...Arabic...Arabic...), but Spanish does offer the following advantages compared to others.

• Spoken in many countries and regions. The whole Latin America is in your hands! I've heard Brazil speaks something slightly different (Portuguese, probably due to rivalry between Argentine the history), but I had a Brazilian friend who spoke Spanish fluently so I should be fine.
• Close to English. Because many Europeans evolved directly or indirectly from Latin (I didn't have courage to tackle the 'origin'), Spanish shares many words with English - or maybe the other way around. For example, the whole "...tion" nouns in English change into "....cion" in Spanish. Actually, I suspect this similarity works more as a 'hook' to encourage English speakers to study Spanish than as a real advantage for making learning easier, but it is not a bad deal anyway.
• Sounds damn good. It is one of those languages which turns everyday conversations into poems or songs. Sadly, Chinese and Japanese aren't in this category.
• It is the eternal 'next big thing'. People say Spanish is 'the' language that dominates the world after Chinese. Presumably they started saying it 20 years ago, they are still saying it today, and probably 20 years later too. Never mind.

This is running long, so that is it for today. In the next topic, I will look deeper into the frustrations in learning Spanish, the verbs.

P.S. If this entry is going to make it into Google search, then someone who is looking for an entry about the Golden Age might hit this. The picture below might make them even more confused realize the content does not follow what the title suggests.