Bay Area Business Trip 2009

Visiting my company HQ in San Jose these two weeks. Flew in to SFO at noon via Seoul, got my rental car, a green Toyota Corolla (a potential Mazda 3 turned out to be a hatchback, can't accommodate my luggage).

Was initially a bit jittery driving again after such a long break, but it soon came back after 5 minutes. Thank goodness for the GPS, I didn't get too lost. Found my way to the Embassy Suites on 901 E Calaveras Blvd, about 2 miles from the office, and successfully checked in.

Just remembered that an old friend of mine was working in Apple, so I dropped him a SMS, and luckily he was using the same number! We met up for dinner at a Singapore/Malaysian restaurant called Banana Leaf (it's a 20 minute drive from Cupertino), walked around, and parted ways then.

I thought Banana Leaf was way too popular. I didn't know the people here enjoyed Singaporean food so much. A good thing we went in early, because about half an hour later, the place was packed with people who had just got off work. We had spring roll, pineapple rice, and chicken rice.

A mundane two days passed meeting and greeting in the office later, it was Saturday again. Feeling rather refreshed after sleeping at 6:30pm the day before, I actually woke up at 5am, but couldn't get back to sleep, and finally got up at 6am. Hit the treadmill at the gym for 25 minutes and had breakfast. I planned my itinerary to last the entire day, covering all the places I had hoped to visit.

Enough with the boring fluff. I set out at 12, and visited these places:

• Intel Museum on 2200 Mission College Boulevard
• Broadcom and Yahoo Santa Clara were just up the street (near six-flags!)
• Computer History Museum at 1401 N Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View.
• Google Headquarters at 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View.
• Apple Headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino.

Photos and videos to follow!

Ended the day going to Mark's house, going for a hike to a hill top where there is a stunning night view of Silicon Valley (there are photos, of course), and having dinner at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Mountain View to celebrate Mark's birthday - Happy Birthday Mark!

Met Patty while walking around after dinner. Turns out that she lives in Mountain View. Haha, I actually could not recognize her outside the office, but she managed to spot me and came up to say Hi.

Plans for Sunday? Shopping maybe?

Exciting Trip

I've had a pretty exciting Taiwan business trip so far:

• On only my second night in Taiwan, I was awakened by a Richter 6.2 earthquake.
• A typhoon brushed by Taiwan a few days later.
• I went hiking on Yangming mountain.
• I went para-sailing in Jinshan.
• I was woken by another earthquake (this one made it to the news in Singapore)
• Some people in a neighboring hotel room decided to simulate their own earthquake shortly after.
• I attended the 2009 computer applications fair in Taipei.
• On the eve of my departure, my flight was delayed for a day due to typhoon Morakot.

Now how exciting is that!

Taiwan 3C

Taiwan has several computer and electronic retailers that sell a wide range of computers, communications, and consumer electronic products, thereby the term 3C.

A lot of products from homegrown Taiwan brands like Acer, Asus, and Dlink are not sold outside Taiwan, or they might be cheaper in Taiwan. These websites will provide a good comparison shopping exercise.

This is a list of the online storefronts from a few of these retailers.

• 名人3C量贩 (Ming Ren); Website: http://www.mren.com.tw/
  
• 灿坤 (Can Kun); Website: http://www.tkec.com.tw/
  
• 全国电子 (National); Website: http://www.elifemall.com.tw/
  

This list is not comprehensive, but is a good start. There are some pretty good bargains to be had, especially if you pay cash in full or take advantage of some of the online special deals.

For example, I bought my Acer Aspire Revo R3600 (Linux edition) from Ming Ren in Hsinchu at a rather good price. At the time of writing, this product is not sold in Singapore. I had to say that their service was good, personal, and friendly. They even offer free delivery to my Hsinchu science park location.

Update 2010-04-14 - adding some more to the list:

• 顺发 3C - http://www.sunfar.com.tw/
• ePrice 比价王 - http://www.eprice.com.tw/
• 欣亚数位3C - http://www.sinya.com.tw/

Commuting in Taiwan

Getting from HsinChu to Taipei via High Speed Rail is faster than getting to work in Singapore using public transport.

In Singapore:-

Trip to train station (< 2km away): 30 minutes
Train Ride: 25 minutes
Bus ride: 10 minutes

In Taiwan:-

Trip to the train station: 15 minutes
Train Ride: 20 minutes

Bam! You end up right in the middle of Taipei city, with MRT connections to anywhere. Better still, base yourself in TaoYuan if you need to travel to Taipei or HsinChu equally.

Hsin Chu Assignment - Day 1

Lunch was in the office canteen. We were still not used to the large portions of food being served here, and I had a hard time finishing my food. We had to leave the office with tons of reports left to be submitted by 2359. We used the first of our dinner coupons in the hotel's Monet Garden Restaurant. Sushi, sashimi, 新竹米粉, were the order of the day.

Hsin Chu Assignment - Arrival

Landed at Taoyuan Airport after an uneventful flight on a half-empty SQ876 (the entire middle section in the economy cabin was empty). We found our driver pretty quickly and were driven to the familiar Lakeshore hotel. We were surprised to be given a whole month's worth of breakfast coupons (not that they were necessary anyway). For our tremendous support of staying for 23 days, we received 3 complimentary dinner coupons (1 coupon for every 7 days of stay)

Dinner was supposed to be Thai food, but it was changed back to 醉月楼 at the Lakeshore at the last minute. We were thinking, if all dinners were this large, then I would gain at least 5kg by month end. During the end of the dinner, I was getting a headache and falling asleep, so I was relieved when it was finally over and I could crash.

Pulse Transformer

This is a confusing article. Nobody is going to know what I am talking about.

Transformers (cartoon) fans would scratch their heads wondering which character was actually called "Pulse". Well, there isn't any!

Electronic engineers would be wondering why someone like me, who has gone over to the dark side, would be talking about a Pulse Transformer. And on a personal blog.

Alright, on with the story!

Girls have a penchant for Gucci, LV, Coach bags (yes, these are supermarket brands I know, I have not reached that level of sophistication required for the other brands), but guys have their weaknesses too.

I got a laptop bag! I was more driven by vanity than practicality, but well, in my defense, I was not extravagant, because I did NOT get an expensive bag (though it may be 'branded' - even calling it branded might be a stretch - for goodness sakes, it is a laptop bag!!!)

Why vain? For starters, it's a convertible. It's a Pulse Convertible Case. Take a look.


It looks like a normal sling bag, but keep the sling, turn it vertical, extract the shoulder straps from the back compartment, and hook them to the bottom, and you have a ready-to-carry backpack!

I've long been unable to decide whether I should get a side-sling bag, or a backpack. Side-slings will curve your spine lop-sided (and they are waaay tiring) while backpacks, though good for your skeletal structure, have too many compartments and pads and what not.

I've been putting off the purchase for a while since I don't bring my laptop (my sexy Sony Vaio SZ483) out much, but now I'll need to carry it to and from work (and to who knows where). The current bags I have are either too big, too old, too uncomfortable, or just look plain inappropriate.

I spent the last couple of days, when I finally could leave work ON-TIME (hurrah!!!) shopping around for a suitable bag. I was originally quite fixed on the Tucano Workout, but it was too pricey and too small. I almost bought the Targus Revolution Convertible (up to 15"), a close cousin of the Pulse yesterday, but the huge velcro-ed frontal flap and uncomfortable weight made me hesitate

Today, I looked around in Funan Center again, and saw the Pulse (first at South Asia Computer). It was going for $79.90 as opposed to $45 for the Revolution. So I thought I may get the Revolution, considering the lower price, and also that my company issue laptop would be a 14" Dell Latitude D630 (I think)., so having a larger bag won't hurt.

I decided to walk around in a few more shops for a second or third opinion, and I was rewarded. Inforcomm was selling the Pulse at $49.90. Challenger had it for $79 (member price). In the end, I realized that the Pulse was more suitable for the following reasons:

• It was lighter at 960 grams (the Revolution was almost 1.2kg)
• It was just the correct size at 14.1" (Revolution was 15")
• It was a more professional black than the Revolution's casual brown/red.
  
• It was VERY affordable at just $5 more than the Revolution.

It was a no-brainer from then. I made my way back down to Inforcomm, and paid my money. I'm stroking it on my lap as I type. :) I'll be carrying it to work tomorrow, speaking of which, I should be turning in already!

My only issue? The carry handles cannot be kept, so they would always dangle out on the side when carrying in backpack mode.