thechannelc

Upstairs Downstairs

Carolyn Chan — Mon, 30 May 2011 03:20:23 +0000

Taken at Berjaya Times Square

The Fiesta is Built Ford Sexy.

Carolyn Chan — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:23:21 +0000

Backview. Photo taken by Tony Wong.

One morning, on my way to work, a bright orange Ford passed by that made me take a second look. I don’t remember Ford cars looking this good and I posted about it on Facebook. The next day, an email from the head of marketing at Ford Malaysia came asking if I would like to take it out for a spin and I eagerly said yes.

So after a weekend of the best Ford-play I ever had, I can tell you the Ford Fiesta is the sex. I can’t tell torque from cork but I can tell you the sound system rocks. There are two audio presets that can direct all the sound toward the driver and another that spreads it out evenly for all the passengers to enjoy.

The UI. Photo by Tony Wong.

First thing I did was paired my iPhone with the car so that I could play any song from my playlist via Bluetooth. I could also play any radio station in the world through an app called Tunein Radio. I also had Wolfgang’s Vault and Last fm going. Suddenly, the Fiesta wasn’t a car any more, it was a live rock concert in Madison Square Garden or a bar playing the smoothest jazz from Nawlins. It was incredible, I could stay in the car all day wishing the jam would last forever. Thunderstorm, bring it on.

Ford is also pushing all the right buttons by taking away a lot of the usual buttons, knobs and levers. There is no door lock thingy on each door. It’s centralized into one button on the command center (pimped out dashboard). One push and all doors are locked to outsiders but passengers can open their doors at any time. There is also no lever to open the gas tank which Ford didn’t tell me so I spent a good few minutes looking high and low for it at the gas station. The attendant helped me with it and we found that it opens from the outside and there is no cap to cover the tank, you just stick the nozzle in and pump away. Woot. No more forgetting, losing or struggling with the cap and breaking a few expensive french-manicured nails.

Talk button. Picture by Tony Wong.

I get a kick out of machines talking back at me. I only wish the voice was a guy’s, like Colin Firth’s. The Fiesta comes standard with a female voice in British accent. Kinda like the voice you hear from an answering machine, “For English, please press 1.” Voice recognition was ok. It had no trouble recognizing the numbers I say out loud but when it comes to names – slight problem, especially names in Malay, Chinese or Indian. It’s still great for answering calls, dialing numbers and talking hands-free. The voice control also lets you change radio stations, play a cd or play from an external device like an iPod, iPhone or Android. It is not Ford SYNC® but it’s close enough. No other car in this price range comes with a voice activated control.

“But what about the driving experience?” you ask. The car handles very well on the road. Pickup is gradual but fast and sometimes too fast with a little jerk forward. Have to learn how to press the accelerator. The steering is fantabulous. The few friends I have passed the keys to to test drive agrees. It was very responsive and stable at sharp corners. I could almost turn the wheel with a finger and yet it stays straight when I’m going straight.

So, do you have to trade-in a kidney to buy a Ford Fiesta? If you want to but it’s pretty a-ford-able. The only thing stopping you from taking one home today is the waiting list which can be up to 3 months depending on the color you choose. White and Aurora Blue are the best selling colors. Honestly, take the Chilli Orange. The Fiesta looks best in bright colors.

Built Ford Sexy. Picture by Tony Wong.

For more information on the Ford Fiesta, go to http://www.ford.net.my/.

Thank you Ford for a lovely experience in the Fiesta. Especially to E.S. Lee, Hazel, Steven Tan and Vivienne Huang from the Ford family. Thanks also to Tony Wong (who took photos), CW Loh, Ramesh V, Azizi J for the feedback and inspiration.

No more blind spots with this side view mirror.

I’m Uniflying

Carolyn Chan — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:44:05 +0000

Unifi high speed broadband is now in my area and I finally got it installed. What is so amazing about Unifi isn’t just faster Internet but I get what I am paying for, all 5mbps of it.

I registered sometime late February at a kiosk set up under a giant umbrella near where I live. It looked really dodgy but since the registration forms were in triplicate – typical semi-government paperwork, it must be legit. Thankfully, the registration process was fast. I was out of the umbrella in 5 minutes.

I was told I’d have to wait a month for installation. Then I got a call from TM this week (2 weeks later) saying they were bringing my installation forward and I would get it by this weekend. Nice. Thumbs up for TM. They called me again yesterday to remind me they would be coming today at 2.30pm and they called me again today at 3.30pm to see if the guys were here already. The guys did come on time and it was all done in 2 hours. Two worked on the broadband connection and two worked on the TV. Two thumbs up for TM. I am just wowed by the whole experience. I love a company with great customer service. You can never fail with great customer service.

Get Unifi, you’ll love it. Many things you can do with Unifi’s high-speed broadband:

1. Broadband TV / IPTV- 13 free channels including TED.com
2. Free VOIP calls to any fixed-line phone (yes, it’s still around) in the country.
3. Watch HD videos/movies/tv shows – streamed live on YouTube or downloaded for later

The only slack thing is the TV content. Though the channels are ala carte instead of packaged like the other pay tv station, it’s lacking in quality. Syfy isn’t what it used to be. Warner TV is probably the best of the lot. What I’d pay premium for is the Comedy Channel but I doubt we’ll ever see it on our TV. You get a few minutes of free preview into all the subscription channels before deciding on which one you’d like to subscribe to. If you have it or when you get it, let me know what are your favorite channels and happy flying.

Lessons from The Social Network

Carolyn Chan — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:09:05 +0000

I watched the movie last night and it got me thinking too. Did people need another MySpace or Friendster? It was essentially the same thing. What made Facebook a success? I don’t think it took off because it was exclusive to Harvard students. The key ingredient was “status update” so students could find out who was available to sleep with. That was what got Facebook the early traction and thus, the Winklevoss brothers didn’t deserve the $65 million settlement because this feature wasn’t their idea.

Is there anything else we can learn from this movie? My takeaway (doesn’t mean I subscribe to them):
1. There’s always a need your product can address. Psst, sex sells.
2. It’s good to have a rich BFF (best friend for Facebook)
3. Must have Sean Parker’s ego. If not, get him in as a partner.
4. When you’re CEO, you can print anything you like on you business card.
5. If you’re naturally arrogant, make sure you’re a billionaire or on your way there.

The movie was entertaining and if you want to find out how much of it is true, read What parts of the The Social Network (movie) are accurate and which are not? on Quora which by the way was started by Adam D’Angelo who was CTO of Facebook

If you’ve seen the movie, what was your takeaway? As an entrepreneur, user, programmer or film maker?

Fancy Fans

Carolyn Chan — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:20:06 +0000

Sunflower Fan.

I just saw the coolest ceiling fan. Now this is what all fans should look like – which is not to look like a fan. This one here is called the sunflower fan. When not in use, the blades are folded in to look like petals and when you turn on the fan, the blades fan out into, well, a fan. Watch the video here. It looks really cool.

I’ve always imagined ceiling fans to be boring which was why I set out to buy a white ceiling fan so that it’ll blend into the white ceiling and disappear. The first shop I walked into, funny enough was called Fancy, in Uptown Damansara. They had fancy fans like this one and propeller looking fans with fancy prices in the thousands of ringgit. I was mesmerized, like a kid in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory. I wish I could take them all home but I had a boring white fan budget. Maybe one day I’ll have a fancy fan in each room of the house even though there’s an air conditioner there. I’d like them to stand out and make the ceiling look less boring.

Found a site that has more fancy fans. Check out G Squared Art. Here are two that I like.

The Artemis

The Cirque

Have you seen some really cool fans?