The fun part is when the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister (that has got to be the most bizarre title in history - do they have a Brown Technology Minister too) say:
"Chin said it was not difficult for petroleum companies like Shell and Petronas to install charging stations into their existing branches around the country"
Hmmm, I guess he is somewhat correct, it wouln't be difficult to do that. There is however a few problems clearly illustrating that Chin hasn't got a freaking clue about the things for which he is the Minister. First of all - charging electrical cars isn't really the core business for petroleum companies (the clue is in the bloody name). Most important though is the fact charging isn't exactly instant. I am not sure how fast you can charge a car, but I reckon it'll take 4-8 hours at least. According to this link:
Some types of batteries such as Lithium-titanate, LiFePO4 and even certain NiMH variants can be charged almost to their full capacity in 10–20 minutes. Fast charging requires very high currents often derived from a three-phase power supply.) .
I guess it'll be just about impossible to buy petrol from those petrol stations, since there will be cars parked just about everywhere.
The world is full of franchises and most are in my personal opinion utter rubbish. There is a few though that I find agreeable and one of these has been "Au Bon Pain" that really have some quite descent sandwiches and market themselves as a casual bakery:
Pay close attention to "no request beyond our reach" from their web site.
On Phuket however they don't quite grasp this concept. Yesterday I went there to have one of their smoked salmon sandwiches and - they were out of bread. I am not kidding - a bakery that didn't have any bread. That's a bit like a MacDonald that is out of hamburgers - in other words completely pointless. It was 8 pm at the Jung Ceylon shopping center on Patong Beach and every other place was crowded with people. Au Bon Pain was quite empty. I guess I wasn't the only one who discovered that they didn't really have anything to sell.
What is interesting here is why on earth this is news worthy. Just outside KFC on Bukit Bintang is a police truck parked just about 24 hours a day - just across the street from a shop selling loads of fake jerseys. Go to Petaling Street or Central Market and they could shut down every single shop - they are ALL selling fake goods of various kinds. Go to Sungai Wang (large shopping mall on Bukit Bintang) and you can't kick your way through the place for "Angry Birds" branded fake goods.
I am not complaining about the fake goods - I couldn't care less, but I do find it amusing when an article like this pop up in the local news. What they are really saying here is that someone forgot to pay.
So let me get this straight. Some village idiot is running around selling various kind of "medicine" and Malaysia is concerned that they got obscene pictures on them. Someone need to get their fucking priorities straight.
Yesterday I wrote a rather lengthy post about Michael Schumacher's reaction after having rammed his car into Bruno Senna.
A few hours later, I received the following in my Gmail inbox:
Dear lbthomsen01,
This is to notify you that we have removed access to your video,Schumacher the Idiot (Slow Motion), as a result of a notification byFormula One Management claiming that this material is infringing.
Please Note: Accounts determined to be repeat infringers may be terminated. To avoid this, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading infringing videos.
For more information, please visit our Copyright Tips guide.
If you believe this claim was made in error, or that you are otherwise authorized to use the content at issue, you may file a counter notice.Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be liable for damages.
Sincerely,
- The YouTube Team
I actually received two emails both send at approximately the same time. The other read:
Dear lbthomsen01:
We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from Formula One Management claiming that this material is infringing:
Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.
If one of your postings has been misidentified as infringing, you may submit a counter-notification. Information about this process is in our Help Center.
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material was disabled due to mistake or misidentification may be liable for damages.
Sincerely,
— The YouTube Team
For some odd reason, the link to the video appear to still be working, so I'll try to link it here too:
So it would appear that the Formula One Management is seriously pissed that I used 4 seconds of their footage to prove a point (and does that footage actually belong to them since I lifted it of ESPN/Star Sport broadcast - which I paid for).
Let us examine what I have done here. Out of a 1 1/2 race that was broadcast on ESPN/Star Sport, I have "borrowed" exactly 4 seconds of footage. I have then removed the sound track (since having Steve Slater babble makes no difference whatsoever) and I have reduced the frame rate to 25 % of the original. I also did blur the logo and in hindsight that might have been a mistake, but at the time I was editing the video it seemed like the right thing to do (just because I could).
Yesterday's Formula 1 race in Spain was one of the best Formula 1 races I have seen in a long time. In lap 13, there was a racing incident between Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna. Incidents such as that is part of what makes motor racing entertaining and fun to watch. However, on the radio after the crash, Schumacher called Bruno Senna an idiot. Even that could be excused at the time. Schumacher was/is obviously frustrated. He has crashed in 3 out of 5 races this season so far and he is consistently being out classed by his much younger team mate Rosberg. However, during press interviews following the race (and following him clearly having watched the video footage since he is mentioning it), he kept on blaming Bruno Senna for this accident, and that is absolutely inexcusable.
"I want the stewards to clarify what happened. He moved to the right, but he shouldn't move back in the braking phase to the left that sharply, I'm just behind him and I don't know how sharply he is going to move. So it was all very dangerous."
Well, let's have a look at it:
Now, let us take a closer look at what happened. Here are some frames from the video. The first frame is early. Senna is approaching corner one, but he is clearly on the wrong side of the track to get an ideal racing line through the corner (right hand corner, so he should be at the left side of the track).
At this point, both Bruno Senna and Schumacher decide to pull left - something they both have to do to get through that corner. It could look as if Schumacher at this point have decided to overtake Bruno Senna on the outside through that corner, something he could easily have done since he had much fresher tires.
Bruno Senna have a right to defend himself, so even if he was aware of Schumachers move, he had a right to close the gap. However, it is worth noticing that he did leave room for Schumacher, even if he had a right to go all the way to the left.
Schumacher at this point, less than half a car length behind Senna, obviously decide not to go around on the outside - even if Senna left tons of space there.
Schumacher start pulling right, but do notice that Senna is not changing direction at all.
This is probably one of the last frames before the crash. Schumacher is moving right, Senna have left space on the left side for Schumacher to go through but there is a corner coming up and he has started braking at this point. He is however still not moving to the right.
Senna is still not turning.
And contact. Notice the tire marks on the track. They clearly show the ideal line through that corner. The two cars in front of Schumacher and Senna is following that line and the car behind them is also properly lined up for the corner.
To me this is a racing incident. It is part of what makes Formula 1 entertaining and it is how it should be. What pisses me of is Schumacher calling Bruno Senna an idiot. OK - I can somewhat understand a stupid reaction during distress - Schumacher was/is obviously frustrated and that is OK. But even after the race - even after watching the video - he is still maintaining that this incident was caused by Bruno Senna being a poor driver. Obviously the guy is a bit delusional these days. I guess he is used to lesser drivers moving out of the way when the great Schumacher approaches. To me he is just a has been that should have stayed retired. Look - I am a year or two older than Schumacher and my reactions are definitely not as sharp as they were when I was 20 or 30.
Schumacher, no doubt, was once a great driver and I don't think anybody is going to forget that - just as nobody will forget the dirty tricks he pulled along the way. Who will forget this incident:
Bruno Senna's uncle was one of the few that might possibly have been an even greater driver, but Bruno Senna is clearly not in the same league. But in this case the mistake was Schumacher's 100 %. There is no doubt about that.
Update 2012-05-15
When I wrote this post yesterday I was actually rather pleased with the FIA, since they had slapped Schumacher with a 5 place grid penalty in the next race (which will be Monaco so it will be bloody hard to overtake). I was under the impression than FIA in general would feel rather pleased to have fans show an active interest in the "sport" (or show) they are trying to promote. However, today I had some new input on this, read more here.
First of all - let me apologize for the title of this posting. Honestly - it was not my idea, but really - it is what this post is all about:
Personally I would probably have gone a bit American on that one and called it a "Fuel Valve" - but never mind - a cock it is.
First a tiny little bit of background. I was having a problem with a bike leaking fuel when parked on the side stand. I took the fuel cock apart and cleaned it up but there is a tiny o-ring in there that had gone a bit brittle, so I went out hunting for a new one.
I had a hard time finding that o-ring in Malaysia, however I did find it on an American web-site specializing in Kawasaki parts (the motorcycle is a Modenas Jaguh 175 - which essentially is a license built Kawasake BN125 Eliminator honed up a bit) and they did indeed have the o-ring and the complete fuel cock - albeit they called it a tap. In this example I have added both to illustrate the pricing:
$65 for the tap was a bit expensive and the thing is damn heavy, however $3 for the o-ring wasn't too bad, so I tried to order it. The problem was they wanted $120 - I am not joking - $120 to ship the darn thing to Malaysia. An o-ring!
Never mind - back to searching and eventually I actually did find a shop with an OEM version in stock. Here comes the killer - RM 20! I am NOT joking - 20 Malaysian Ringgit, which right at this moment is US$ 6.51 - complete with o-rings and all.
Trust me - I can live with it being a cock rather than a tap or a valve. Here's some close-ups:
If that was all I probably wouldn't have bothered writing this post, but seriously - look at the thing! Here is an exploded view from the Kawasaki BN125 service manual:
Think about this for a while. The darn thing consist of 3 rubber seals, 1 rubber diaphragm, a handful of screws, 4 pieces of metal that is both molded and machined, 2 fairly complex injection molded plastic pieces and a few washers.
So - someone in Malaysia or China (more likely) actually went through the trouble of taking an original apart, carefully draw up each piece, create injection molds, produce the thing, put it together, ship it to Malaysia, store it in a shop for a while and then sell it to me. And I am pretty sure they did that for a profit - not to save me a 100 bucks in shipping.
$6.50!!!!! - how on earth is that possible? It is mind boggling if you think about it and it is a thing of beauty!
I just experienced a prime example of why Malaysia still is a third world country and will be for the foreseeable future.
Malaysia got a few companies manufacturing motorcycles. One of these are called "Syarikat Motosikal dan Enjin Nasional Sdn. Bhd.", a.k.a. Modenas. Modenas in turn is owned by DRB-HICOM, which is the largest conglomerate in Malaysia with an annual revenue of over RM 6 billion.
Now, one of the bikes Modenas produce is a license build Kawasaki Eliminator, called the Modenas Jaguh. I have considered getting one of these but most of the ones for sale on the second hand market are quite worn down, so I considered buying a new one. According to Modenas' web-site:
RM 6000 is really not too bad. Especially considering most of the second hand ones goes for around RM 2500 and are 12-14 years old.
Unfortunately calling the local resellers didn't prove very productive, so I went back to the web-site:
So I decided to give their sales and marketing office a call. This was on a normal Tuesday at around 2.30pm. I think I called 2 or 3 times and nobody bothered to pick up the phone - nothing - nada.
Then I decided to give the factory a call and got through to some receptionist that actually proved quite helpful. She gave me a mobile number for "someone in sales". So I called that mobile number a few times and again - nobody picked up.
By this time I had already started browsing Kawasaki, Suzuki and Honda's web-sites, but after half an hour - much to my surprise - I actually received a return-call from the mobile number I had called earlier. Unfortunately all he could tell me was that Modenas stopped making the Jaguh years ago.
So - a conglomerate with an annual revenue of more than 6 billion Ringgit, owning a motorcycle manufacturer that have apparently produced in excess of one million bikes (2008 figure) -
Can't afford - or couldn't be bothered - to update their web-site
Can't afford - or just can't be bothered - to pick up the phone - IN THEIR SALES OFFICE!
As a result I probably wasted almost an hour chasing something that doesn't exist. Ok - I just called local, but say I was located in Europe and wanted to import motorcycles - my next call would be to China - not Malaysia and most certainly not Modenas.
It is incredible that someone can be that uninterested in making themselves convenient for their customers.
Not only is this third world mentality incredible rude towards potential customers, it is also plainly illegal in Malaysia. The Malaysian Consumer Protection Act 1999 clearly states:
Considering Modenas no longer produce the Jaguh, I think it's clear that they "do not intend to offer for supply". I think I'll consider filing a complaint.
