Sad Day at Sepang MotoGP

Yesterday I went to the MotoGP race at Sepang as I have pretty much done the last 5 or 6 years, but this time disaster struck and as a result one of my favorite riders - if not my absolute favorite - lost his life.

For the past year or so, I have been joking that the moment Marco Simoncelli learned to stay ON his bike he would become a world champion.  Obviously those jokes now leave a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth, but then again - that is how MotoGP is isn't it?

I still remember back int he late 90's when Garry McCoy started riding the 500cc bikes.  The guy was completely mental and he went sideways through every bloody corner, pushing the bike to the absolute limit.  At the end of the day, Garry McCoy had so many crashes that he never really won anything (if I am not mistaken he won 3 500cc races in total), but damn - he is to this day the most fantastic rider I have ever seen.  In the 2003 movie "Faster", another MotoGP legend Mick Doohan had this to say about McCoy's riding style:



Normally, a remark like that wouldn't mean much, but coming from Mick Doohan it does mean a lot.  Doohan himself was "a little bit looser than a lot of people". In 1992, Doohan crashed in a practice session before the Dutch TT.  He was inches from losing his leg, but a few month later he showed up again, looking like this:



Doohan went on to win the 500cc championship (it wasn't called MotoGP back then) no less than 5 times on a custom built bike (since he couldn't use a foot operated rear brake).

In 1993, I remember watching Wayne Rainey's crash at the Italian Grand Prix.  Rainey broke his spine and the crash rendered him permanently paralyzed from the chest down.  Still, the following year, he showed up, in a wheel chair, as team manager for the Malboro Yamaha team and to this day he still enjoy Superkart racing, driving a custom build hand operated kart.

At this point you might think: "what on earth is he rambling about".  Well, I guess my point is that it is this very madness that makes a good MotoGP rider become a truly great rider.  There are tons of good riders out there, but only the truly inspired becomes great and Simoncelli - in my opinion - had that potential.  Like McCoy, he was unfortunate and he ran out of luck (or grip actually), but if his luck had not run out, he would have had every chance to go on and become a legend like Rainey or Doohan.

In the words of Mick Doohan, Simoncelli was a little bit looser than a lot of people.  Eventually that would cost him his life, but it was also what made it awe inspiring to watch him ride.

I'll miss him.

Marketing Gone Wrong

First of all - I do know that Amazon doesn't really intent for their Kindle to be sold outside the US (for whatever reason) but it's still fairly easy to get one.

However, I gotta say that their latest version - with advertising - seem someone inappropriate or downright silly - in Malaysia:

Trust me - a little snowfall will NOT stop me here.  Anyway - if Amazon want to give me a discount and a laugh - so be it.

Misguided Marketing - Malaysian Style

I think Pavilion qualifies as the shopping mall in Malaysia with the most idiotic marketing campaigns.  It's actually quite entertaining - I end up laughing at something almost every single time I go there.

Here's the latest:

First of all I'd say that car alone would be reason enough never ever to get a savings account at Hong Leong Bank.  What's even more interesting is - who the hell are they actually targeting with that campaign?  10 year old girls?  Any adult willing to drive that car should be locked up in an asylum somewhere.

Goodbye Nokia - It was fun!

I am normally pretty open minded when it comes to technology, but I must admit, when it comes to mobile phones, I have always been a bit of a closet Nokia fanboy.

One of the first mobile phones I ever had (the very first was in fact an Ericsson), was the legendary Nokia 2110 (picture to the right).  Not much to say about that really - it was absolutely rock solid build quality and I am quite sure if I could find a working battery it would still work fine.  Sound and build quality was awesome (as it aught to be - if I am not mistaken the first one cost around US$ 1000 or so).

After the 2110 I went through a pile of Ericsson phones until Ericsson gave up and joined forces with Sony and I dropped my gorgeous T21 on a tile floor.  At this point I bought a Nokia 8210.  This is without a shadow of a doubt the most brilliant phone I have ever used.  It was TINY especially by today's standard and battery life was about a week (no kiddin'!).  I seriously do not think this phone will ever be beaten.
I used this phone for something like 7 years (no kiddin').  At some point the microphone crapped out and I had it replaced.

At some point a friend of mine who was a serious gadget freak was given a Nokia N73 and since he had no use for it - he passed it to me.  While it was quite advanced for the time, it is probably the phone I have disliked the most.  It was bulky - it was SLOW - and battery life sucked big time.  I only used this phone for about a year or so, but managed to kill the stupid little joy stick thingy twice.

Just when I was pretty fed up with the N73, Nokia launched a massive campaign with TV commercials advertising the Nokia 6110 Navigator.  I thought this was pretty damn cool and while I am not crazy about slide phones, I decided to give it a shot.  Much was my surprise that even though the TV commercial was on daily, nobody had this phone in stock in Malaysia and they all wanted to sell me a new N-something (can't remember which one) which was much more expensive.  I called Nokia in Malaysia and bitched about this, and they found one and actually gave it to me just to shut me up.  Anyway - it was actually quite a nice little phone.  The display was smaller than the N73, but it was much quicker and it worked quite nicely.

While I quite liked the 6110 Navigator, this was a period where everybody else - especially LG and HTC - was pumping out "Smart Phones" with touch displays and when Nokia finally got their act together and launched the 5800 ExpressMusic, I just had to have one (and I think I bought one of the first in Malaysia).  Initially the firmware sucked cock, but after 2 or 3 releases - they sort of got it right, and I was quite willing to give Nokia a bit of time to sort it out.  Especially because contrary to the other phones on the market the 5800 was dirt cheap.
This to me will always be the phone that represent Nokia on the top and I really can't understand why it went downhill from this point.

The 5800 with touch screen probably stretched Symbian just about as far as it could go and I was quite excited when Nokia announced the N900 - the first mobile device based on Maemo (which I aught to like since it is essentially a Debian GNU/Linux with a mobile GUI thrown in for good measure).  It was quite difficult for me to get one in Malaysia, but I finally managed to get it a few month after it was released in the state.  A few weeks after I managed to get one, Nokia announced that they would drop future development of Maemo and concentrate on Meego.  This is quite frankly one of the most idiotic decisions I have ever encountered.  Maemo was a bit rough around the edges - and still is - but it was/is a rock solid platform and with a little bit of love and effort the user interface could beat just about anything currently on the market.

Now Nokia is about to release the N9 - their first phone running Meego.  Unfortunately it is quite clear already that it will also be their last.  This time they have announced a change of direction even before  the phone has been released.  Would I buy one?  Well, I would lie if I said I wasn't tempted, but really - no fucking way.  Cheat me once - shame on you, cheat me twice - shame on me, so no - I will not put a cent more into Nokia's pockets.  In fact I have just purchased a Samsung Galaxy S2 and it is awesome so far.  So, goodbye Nokia, it was fun while it lasted, but you have let yourself go.