Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Brick - Size matters

I don't mind that the Nokia E90 Communicator is bigger than I had imagined. Actually, I kinda like big and heavy cell phones because they give me the assurance that quality materials were used to build it. Furthermore, it's the norm that bigger phones will have better battery life and more features than those miniature razor thin phones. I'm not calling it The Brick for nothing.


But one problem with The Brick is that the internal keyboard is a little too big. To help with the visualization, let's say that two full qwerty keyboards from RIM (Blackberry) or Palm (Treos) would fit in that space side by side. This size requires a lot of travel for your thumbs if you're thumb typing and your hands have to move a lot to permit this travel, making it uncomfortable to type long emails on it. On the other hand, the keyboard is not big enough to allow typing with your fingers, like you would do on a laptop.

And, to make things more complicated, the internal keys are extremely hard so they require some strength to completely push them down; and they don't have much travel making it hard to determine whether you pushed them or not. This made me use key tones (those annoying beeps every time you press a key) on a cell phone for the first time in my life.

I will eventually get used to this keyboard but this is one bad out of the box impression of The Brick.

The Brick - Introduction

I introduce you my new phone, the Nokia E90 Communicator. I still have The Beast, but the E90 will be my main phone, at least for the next couple of weeks. I needed a qwerty device for my work related needs and I will be trying this brick of a phone for a while. Let's see how it performs.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Freedom

A long time ago in a country far far away (Brazil) I was in a bus on a rainy summer afternoon. It wasn't rush hour so it wasn't completely packed, but it was slowly getting there. I managed to find a seat, settled down and opened a book, pretending to be busy while waiting for my stop to come.

It was hot and humid inside that bus and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable. That's when it happened. There was this girl seated about 10 feet away, but in a seat that faced me. As I said previously, the bus wasn't completely packed yet so we had a clear vision of each other. Our eyes met and it was one of the worst sensations in my life. She was the ugliest girl I'd ever seen in my life and I couldn't stop looking at her!

After a few minutes, I was sick and felt like throwing up. Seriously, it was the worst case of motion sickness I would ever experience in life (well, up to this point, at least). In an herculean effort, I managed to get off the bus (three stops before mine!) before throwing up on the sidewalk.

I'm not sure what exactly caused that, but I have a pretty strong suspicion that that girl's ugliness had a lot to do with it. In the same way somebody smoking a cigar by my side would bother me a lot, that girl bothered me so much that I had to get off that fucking bus three stops before mine and puked on the sidewalk.

Which takes me to the following question: why is it that, in the US of A, authorities make laws against smokers but don't make any against ugly people? And what about fat people? And smelly people? Have you ever, like I have, been so bothered by an ugly person to the point of throwing up? Have you ever, like I have, been on a plane and the person next to you was so fat that you were uncomfortable for the whole nine fucking hours? Have you ever, like I have, been in a movie theater and the person next to you smelled so bad that you had to watch the next session because the room was packed?

Don't get me wrong here. First, I'm not a smoker and second, I'm not suggesting there should be a law against ugly, fat or smelly people in public spaces. What I'm saying is that this persecution of smokers is ridiculous and unfair. I even understand the smoking ban in restaurants, but in bars? Bars, for God's sake? What's next, are they gonna outlaw nudity in strip clubs?

That's it, if banning smoking in bars is reasonable, banning nudity in strip clubs is also reasonable. They said they banned smoking in bars to protect the health of bartenders, waiters and waitresses. What about the rights of a strip club's staff member who's offended by nudity? Who protects those people?

Monday, November 24, 2008

Contrasts


On October 19th, Nokia opened its latest flagship store and the lucky city was São Paulo, Brazil, place where I grew up. The store is located at 849 Oscar Freire Street and this neighborhood is known for high end brands and expensive stores. I have to agree, they chose the right place for a Nokia store.

Just for fun, and maybe saudade (Portuguese word to which there's no precise translation in English), I browsed the Brazilian Nokia website to check some prices for high end phones. The three most popular models (N96, N95 8Gb and E71) are priced at U$977, U$816 and U$612 respectively. The same products are priced U$776, U$577 and U$442 in the American website (though you can get all of them for much cheaper at some virtual stores like Amazon, for instance).

This roughly U$200 difference is probably result of the higher taxation to which imported goods are subjected in Brazil, so it doesn't surprise me that much. What amazes me is the contrast between those prices and the average salary in that country, which is in the vicinity of U$700/month. We must remember that this number, although small in itself, is misleading because of the severe and historical unbalance in the wealth distribution. Considering that the 10% wealthiest Brazilians retain 65% of the wealth, it's easy to conclude that the majority of the population is far away from making the average salary and is making something closer to the minimum salary of U$184/month. Are these people likely to buy one of those phones?

Nokia's bread and butter is in the sale of low end phones in emerging countries like India, China and Brazil itself and these high end phones were clearly not made for the masses. So I think they will get their expected number of sales of high end phones in Brazil because there are plenty of people with money in a population of over 300 million. But I can imagine a poor guy walking by Oscar Freire, glancing at the store and noticing that one of those phones would cost him the income of three months combined - IF he didn't spend money in anything superfluous like food, rent and transportation.

It must be a sad situation, like a slap in your face.

Remarks: all figures were obtained using the exchange rate of November 21st, 2008.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Gay marriage

I was strolling around Seattle this afternoon when I came across several hundreds of people (if not a few thousands) protest marching for the gay marriage cause, obviously fueled by the recent California ban.

I'm not gay, I don't have gay friends and if anybody in my family is gay I'm not aware of it. The only gay people I know are a few acquaintances here and there and I never had the chance to have any serious conversation with any of them. In fact, I am a very conservative Korean guy, to whom the thought of a man sleeping with another man causes a little discomfort, to say the least. And having made my politically incorrect confession, I believe that it's in this discomfort that lies the foundation of gay discrimination.

Straight people always seem to concentrate on the sexual implications of someone being gay. They don't see the human being, they see the sexual being. Meanwhile, I try to give them the same treatment I'd give a straight person.

When I meet a person who I know is straight, I don't think about their sexual life (well, if it's an attractive girl, one or another thought may slip there). I don't even feel the need to tag that person with the label "straight". So why would I do that with someone who's gay? Gay people are not constantly fucking, they live their lives like everybody else. They go to school, they work, they eat, they sleep, and it just happens that they have a partner of the same gender.

Ultimately, I'm convinced that gay people are born gay. It's not a choice, it's just what they are. In the same way I was born in Korea, they were born gay. Thinking about it, who would ever choose to be gay? It's so hard to be gay, there's so much discrimination, why would somebody want to be gay?

Needless to say, I'm in favor of the legalization of gay marriage. My strongest argument would be that gay people have the same obligations of straight people, why should they have different rights? Whenever I hear arguments against gay marriage, my position gets stronger and stronger because none of them makes sense. They're all based in stereotypes and misconceptions that would be extremely offensive if the target was a racial group, instead of gays.

So, let's hope that lawmakers in this country get this thing right and legalize gay marriage.

Friday, November 14, 2008

"Happy End" (1999)

In 1999, Korean people were still under severe stress due to the broken national economic structure. Several companies had gone bankrupt and unemployment rate increased from 2% to 8%. Korea had been long enjoying the results of an economical boom and this crisis had a deep impact on the self esteem of the nation.

Amid the storm, there comes "Happy End". This movie tells the story of Bo-Ra. She's a successful career woman and mother of a baby girl whose marriage to the older Ki-Min is less than satisfactory on all levels. Her husband is an unemployed former banker who's finding more than difficult to find another job. He spends his days on domestic chores (taking care of the baby, buying groceries, cleaning the house) and in used book stores. Meanwhile, Bo-Ra is cheating on him with Il-Beom, her co-worker and former lover.

(From this point on, there will be spoilers.)

At some point, Ki-Min finds out about his wife's affair and for a while it seems like he's willing to accept that life. He never confronts her directly, which leaves the audience very unsatisfied. The only confrontational moment is when a somehow regretful Bo-Ra prepares dinner, during which Ki-Min utters "I only wish you will be a good mother to our baby", or something to that effect. But that same night, Bo-Ra gives their daughter some sleeping pills and goes out to meet her lover, which sends the baby to the emergency room. Then, Ki-Min has had enough. He stabs Bo-Ra to death in a extremely graphic scene, framing Il-Beom in the process.

To its credit, "Happy End" tries to portray all sides of this triangle in a fair way. It's easy to understand the motives of everyone involved. And although it shows that women can have the same disrespectful and abusive behavior when in the position of power in a relationship, it also "redeemed" Ki-Min's masculinity with its violent conclusion.

The greatest quality of the ending, in my opinion, is that it doesn't provide satisfaction to anybody in the audience. Ki-Min doesn't deserve what's happening to him and I believe Korean men were shocked to see the extremely graphic nature of the sex scenes between Bo-Ra and Il-Beom (I know I was). No man wants to imagine his woman fucking another man.

But she also didn't deserve to die for it.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

As of today, I'm officially an American citizen

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Obama elected!

Obama as our next president doesn't make me particularly happy or sad. The fact that the USA was ready to elect a black president makes me happy.

Now let's see if he lives up to the hype.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

My swiss knife phone

Five years ago, I was introduced to the world of smartphones. A co-worker showed me his newly acquired Motorola MPx200 and its strange bulky looks attracted me. I also had never seen the Windows menu in such a small screen. Then he proceeded to play "The Usual Suspects" on his phone and I was hooked. It was the beginning of a long journey and since then, all my phones have been smartphones and the more expensive they get, the more I like it.

These animals may cost you a kidney but if you need your cellphone to do more than the basic, they are the way to go. There are several choices for several different needs. The best thing to do when looking for one is to determine exactly what will be the main purpose of the phone and start from there. I, for instance, am a sucker for convergence (all in one). That's why my phone is the Nokia N95 8Gb (in this entry, specifications will only be mentioned when relevant, so people in need of more information should check here).
When it was introduced, two years ago, the N95 family was clearly a cut above the rest, and it helped that Nokia didn't wait much after the announcement to make it available. Everything on the N95 looked fresh and it was probably the first phone to have several features like a 5MP camera, GPS receiver or VGA video recording. And even today, there's no phone available or on the horizon that significantly improves its features.

(For more information on the "members" of the N95 family, check here.)

It has of course its bad points and limitations, specially in its first version. The first N95 had a small RAM and low memory issues were very common when more than one application was open (the phone would close applications or simply reboot). The battery life was also poor, in some cases lasting less than a day with heavy usage. Also, some people may point out the lack of a qwerty keyboard or touch screen, but this is not exactly a problem of the N95, since it was conceived to be used without those features.

All limitations were addressed in recent versions and even the original N95 improved considerably with some firmware updates. The only thing I see as a nuisance for the whole family is the build quality, which can be poor if you are unlucky, specially the wobbly slider. But this also has a do-it-yourself fix so for now my phone is perfect.

Now let me tell you what I do with this phone.

I almost never carry my digital camera and my video recorder is collecting dust at home. With the N95's 5MP camera, the pictures are always nice (given good lighting is available) and since I have the phone with me at all times, I never miss the opportunity for a nice picture, ideal situation for a proud parent of a 4 year old daughter. The VGA recording produces quality video clips and with the TV-Out cable I can show them to anybody on a big screen. And if I want to, I can upload my pictures and videos to the internet without connecting to a computer.

My sense of direction is notably poor. I couldn't find the ground if I jumped from the 1st floor of a building. Two days after we moved to a new house, I had problems finding it on my way back from work. But the N95 has a GPS receiver and with turn-by-turn directions I don't have to worry about my stupidity anymore. On our last vacation, the N95 helped us a lot. Try to find a Korean restaurant in an unknown city, in the middle of the night. Well, I did.

The internet is only a touch away. The N95 has a good browser and it renders most pages like a computer would and with 3G speed from AT&T, I have all the power to surf whenever I want. I use it all the time to check weather, sports results (I know the Seahawks are going to lose, but I still want to know the score) and anything else that comes to my mind.

The N95's gorgeous 2.8" screen is bright and big enough to watch a whole movie on it. At the moment I have a Brazilian film ("Tropa de Elite"), "Training Day" and (guilty pleasure) "National Treasure". I also have some MP3s and a few episodes of "Entourage" and "The Office" on it. It amounts for hours of entertainment and I still have about half left of its 8Gb internal memory. It means that at any time I'm bored or have nothing to do (waiting for a plane, waiting for a table at a restaurant or whatever else that makes me wait) I can snap my phone out of my pocket and start having fun.

Whenever I'm tired of watching the same movies or TV shows, I can play one of the several video games I have available. Remember "The secret of monkey island"? I know I may be dating myself here for this is a very old game, but it sure is a pleasure to be able to play it on my phone. I can also play Texas Hold'em Poker, Civilization, Frozen Bubble (my favorite) and loads of other stuff.

And if I need more applications, Symbian S60 (the operational system that powers the N95) has lots and lots of native software that can be found in several different sources like here, or here. With Quickoffice, for instance, I could write a novel on my phone if I wanted to (or had the talent) or I could create spreadsheets to control my finances (actually I do that). There's virtually no limits to what third party applications can do and the hardware is powerful enough to support it.

I'm not even counting the usual stuff that most phones do, like making phone calls, SMS, MMS, e-mail and PIM applications. My phone excels in every single one of those features. And, despite having full Bluetooth capability, I don't even need a headset (by the way, people who wear one all day are ridiculous) because it has the most powerful stereo speakers available in the market.

I still have a computer, a laptop, a digital camera, a video recorder and an iPod Touch and I agree that each one of them performs its specific task better than my phone. But what other single device can do so many things so well? My N95 8Gb is a true swiss knife phone.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween

On Halloween night I joined some friends and we took our kids trick-or-treating. In our group, we had four princesses (Snow White, Belle, Aurora and a generic one) and two firemen and, by the end of the night, I had seen ghosts, pirates, Hogwarts students and lots of other creatures, and all of them went home with their bags full of candy.

Watching the kids get their portion of candy at each door, I couldn't help but admire the way in which people decorate their houses for this night. There were some nice ones, like a spider web made of Christmas lights or a guy who transformed his garage into a haunted house, but in only two instances I felt compelled to put my beer aside (in a plastic cup, of course) and snap a picture.

It's a pumpkin and I only took the picture above because I know how hard it is to carve something like this. Wonderful job.

Now if the picture above isn't disturbing, I don't know what is. I know it's Halloween but there should be some limits.