一 条 好 狗

Despite being Chinese, I'm not very good in the Chinese language. Victor is better at the language as you can see how he tried to show off HERE.

Being Chinese and not being able to communicate effectively in the language is a point of embarrassment, to say the least. Many moons ago, I swore to master this language after having seen Caucasians engaging in a debate programme on national TV in what must have been an alien language to their fore-fathers. I sat and watched in disbelief as these Americans and Europeans battered away in fluent and impeccable Chinese, taking on native Chinese from Singapore and Hong Kong. These guys should be eating french fries! But they got me eating humble pie instead. And put me to shame.

That being said, I've always wondered how to blog in Chinese. But never really found time to go look up the internet for tips. When Senior Junior was asked to put up a blog in Chinese as a school project, he was stumped. And so was I when he approached me. Then I asked Victor. Victor wasted no time to "show-off" an entry in the Chinese language. He didn't explain how he did it in the blog. But told me later that he's used the "cut and paste" method to input the text in his Blog. That is soooo primitive. And I told him that from what little I learned from the Internet, there's a feature called Input Method Editor (IME) in XP that converts the keyboard into a Chinese keyboard that enables inputting of Chinese Characters.

I would have found the solution earlier had I not installed Chinese (Singapore) "text services and input languages". The right one to choose is the Chinese (PRC). A series of trials and errors later, I was able to finally input the Chinese text. I texted Victor to tell him about my discovery.

Then he has to SHOW OFF again and to add insult to injury, blog the whole episode of his "new discovery" of how to input Chinese characters (all thanks to me actually cos I was the one who sparked his interest, ok??)and then went on to tell me that "It was quite easy leh". What nerves.

Nonetheless, I'm glad that Victor finally figured it out (though I did it first). It proves yet again that old dogs can certainly learn new tricks! 他低低却却是一条好狗。And I don't mean it in a derogatory sort of way. It's a 称赞 that came strait from my heart.

What rotten Apple

I know this may draw some flaks from die-hard fans of Apple. But the IPOD is really full of hype and nothing else. It doesn't even come a close second to creative's range of MP3 players from my experience.

Since my purchase on Dec 04, I've sent my IPOD for service twice. Apple has a unique way of "servicing" its product in Singapore. Because it does not have a service dept in Singapore, the IPOD is sent to the US for service. In the meantime, I get a replacement. Cool, huh? What Apple didn't tell me earlier was that the IPOD replacement was actually one that have been sent to the US for servicing before and actually was the original IPOD that belonged to someone else. My original IPOD that has been sent to the US will end up in the hands of another unfortunate customers. Apple only changed the casing of the IPOD to make it look new but it's really all used IPODs. Weird and strange system that Apple has. I guess it's probably to cut down turnover time. Or else, we probably have to wait months for the IPOD to be returned from the US.

While the IPOD looks cool and chic, it's really a piece of junk. Victor said IPOD really stands for "1 PIECE OF DUNG". And that makes lot of sense. Yet, everywhere I go I couldn't help hearing people ranting and raving about IPOD, in the papers, internet, magazines, etc. I've nothing but trouble with mine. It got hung while I was out jogging with it. Then it acted peculiar, choosing to jump tracks and playing songs that it chose. I could even hear the harddisk churning when I held it in my hand.

The young man at the Apple Care Centre also told me something that made me sit up. He said I should not subject my IPOD to heavy vibration or shaking like when go jogging for the fact that the "needle" used to run the harddisk may harm the harddisk. In order words, he was saying that I should not subject the IPOD to shock. And I thought all MP3 players are shock-proof?

He also advised me to take up an Apple Extended Warranty at $110 to cover another 12 months. He said once the current 12-month warranty is up, it's not worth servicing the IPOD again cos the price of the service is good enough to get a new IPOD. I'm not sure if I want to extend the warranty. If it conks again after 12 months, I don't think I'll shell out any money to have the IPOD service. A product that breaks down thrice within 12 months is just beyond hope! 无药可救。 APPLE should seriously look into improving the quality of its products. Maybe having it assembled in China is the problem.