Learning to drive a stick

I never got around to this when I first learned how to drive. Recently I had to plan a trip to the UK and thought I may end up with a manual car from the car rental place, so I thought I better learn how to drive one. I found this place called shifters from Toronto ( http://www.shifters.ca/introlevel.htm ). They provide an introductory program to the stick.

My first thought was how hard can it be. Change gears based on speed and RPM, what’s the catch? After an hour session, I should be a pro. Well I’m a bit off base. It took 5 sessions for me to be comfortable with everything, the traffic, the hills, the highway, the downshifting, etc. In the end I was able to shift smoothly without the typical jerky feeling when I get in a manual with someone else.

Unfortunately, it does feel like it is more work than I care for. Luckily, Hertz had an automatic available in the UK. I think driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road will be distracting enough, so fingers crossed! Europe here we come!

iPhone 4 Cases

Since I got my iPhone 4, I’ve been on a search for a suitable case. Got the bumper case from Apple and found out many of the third party connectors don’t fit. On top of that it also has problem with interfere with HSUPA connectivity. Opt’ed for a plastic case instead that costs $3 including shipping from eBay! The new case is working great.

Our iPhone 4 Hunt

When the iPhone 4 was first released in Canada back on July 30th, we were on vacation in Calgary. To be more precise we were driving from Banff back to Calgary on that day. I remembered the night before thinking naively that we could simply visit Rogers resellers along the way to pickup two phones, one for myself and one for my wife. Of course we now know that was an effort in futility. The phones were all sold out. We even went to the Market Mall and found the line up at the Apple Store was stupendously long. We gave up our quest and decided to pursue the phone in Toronto instead.

Back in Toronto the month of August was spent religiously calling Rogers resellers and Rogers store in our neighborhood. My wife even put our names on a waiting list at a Costco stand. When we realized that we have to lineup to get one and Rogers was not going to offer it online, I remember that was just a silly thing for a big company to put their customers through in this day and age of the Internet. In short we gave up.

In September, we went on vacation in the Far East and found the same inventory shortage to be the same in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and China. You can buy one in the grey market for $1000+, but why when we can get it back in Canada for $159?

So coming back to Canada in October, thinking that there will certainly be inventory relief by now. Nope! Again my wife intermittently search for the evasive phone at resellers. At this point I was about to give up and just wait for the next version in July. Suddenly last Friday, my wife called from Future Shop that they had two! My wife got a 16GB one without much issue but my number was turned down for the hardware upgrade eligibility program, even when their web site told me that my phone was eligible. Very frustrating. I got on the phone with Rogers customer support. During the call the inventory was out at Future Shop.

To the CSR credit, Virginia helped me to escalate the matter and Philip the manager promised me that one will be mailed out to me at the promotional pricing. My sincere thanks to them for their assistance in the matter.

So this is where I stand now. My wife has one and I’m waiting for one in the mail. I honestly cannot remember when was the last time we tried so hard to buy something. I guess on the plus side, we did not have to lineup for hours. We simply refuse to. After all it is just a phone. Fingers crossed that my phone will get here.

My email to Bryon Wilfert (Canadian Telecommunication Industry)

Hello Honourable Bryon Wilfert,

I just came back from vacation on a 3 week tour of the Far East, including countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. As a professional in the high-technology industry, I noticed that telecommunication technologies available to the common consumer at these countries are far superior to those offerings that are available here in Canada.

As an example, a local calling cellphone plan for 880 minutes just cost $88 HKD in Hong Kong. That’s less than $12 CAD (using exchange rates on Oct. 4, 2010). This is a pre-paid commitment free plan. Calling back to Canada cost less than $0.03 CAD per minute. People in South Korea has enough bandwidth to watch TV on the subway. Time and time again, I see these examples throughout my travels. Of course, I am envious of these observations, and would love Canadians to experience and have access to this scale of information freedom. Yesterday on October 3rd, I am reminded of yet another horrible experience dealing with one of our major Internet Providers here in Canada, and felt compelled to write to you, so that I can bring your attention to the disparity that we face with these countries.

If you are not aware already, organizations such as SaveOurNet.ca does an excellent job in communicating the issues at hand. A good summary video can also be found here: http://bit.ly/4G3e3T Thank you for your time and attention, and I hope that you can objectively represent our global position on this matter.

Kang Lu

Day 1 of our Far East Trip

Arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport at around 1:30pm local time after a 15hrs and somewhat better than expected comfortable ride on an Air Canada AC15 flight. Time on the flight passed quickly as I used it to watch many movies, The A-Team, The Losers, The Last Air Bender, and others. Carol slept, while the kids either enjoyed the on board kids entertainment or their Nintendo DS.

Our arrival was more troubling, as the immigration line was extremely long, and the never ending queueing for luggages, train, and taxi. We didn’t arrive to the place where we are staying until 4pm. We were then greeted by Carol’s cousins who brought some local food, which we snacked or devoured, not sure because at this time I really was not fully awake.

Carol’s cousin went out and purchased some communication necessities, such as local SIM cards and their corresponding prepaid plans. While they made their errands, the kids and I took a little nap. We went out for dinner, making a quiet and early evening, because we were very jet lagged. We all turned in early and were in bed before 11pm.

But here I am writing our first day’s experience wide awake with our new prepaid Internet service via one2free nextG. It is good to be online again. The data rates are so cheap around here. We got a one week unlimited data plan for $200 HKD.