News and Views

I was watching American Idol a few weeks ago, and I suddenly noticed that almost all the contestants said “Thank you so much” when the judges complimented them. “Thank you so much”, “Thank you so much”…

And I began to hear it everywhere; on TV, on the radio, in restaurants and stores. I started wondering when that phrase had become popular. What ever happened to “Thank you very much”, or even just “Thank you”? I think this is a recent trend, maybe within the past 5-10 years.

And how much is “so much”? “So” used to be an adverb meaning “in the manner indicated, described or implied”, but it has also assumed an informal definition of very or extremely. “That was so good!”, “It’s so hot today”.

Listen for it, and I think you’ll be surprised how much it is used.

Thank you so much for reading my blog!

I was working at Intel back in the early 80s when Intel invented the flash drive (back then it was an EEPROM; almost the same). Of course then it was small capacity, slow and expensive, but the potential seemed huge. I remember remarking to a fellow engineer that we should shortly be able to replace our hard drives with flash memory. Current capacities weren’t large enough and it was much too expensive in those days, but I didn’t think it would be long before hard drives were obsolete.

Fast forward 30 years. During this time flash memory has continued to get faster and cheaper, but hard drives have also kept moving ahead getting larger and cheaper, and a little faster.

Hard drives are still cheaper than “Solid State Drives” (or SSD, as flash-based hard drives are called), but we seem to have reached a tipping point where it might be worth the extra cost for the gain in performance. So today I replaced the hard drive in my main desktop computer with an SSD.

I am amazed at the improvement in performance. It is greater than any other upgrade I have ever done, including upgrading the CPU or adding RAM. Windows 7 used to take over 2 minutes to cold boot, with icons trickling in for a minute or two after that, but it now is totally up and ready in about 20 seconds. Programs launch almost immediately. Even web browsing is much, much faster; apparently I haven’t been limited by my internet connection but rather by hard drive speed. When I compile programs, the hard drive used to thrash around loading libraries and modules for up to a minute; now it is not quite instantaneous, but very, very fast. Programs close much faster (as they write their configuration files to disk) and system shut down is much faster. I will no longer dread doing a Windows Update with the required reboot, since I can be back up and running in less than a minute.

If you are thinking of replacing your computer because it is too slow, you might consider just replacing the hard drive with an SSD for less than the cost of a new computer. It might give you more benefit for your money.

I got one from the Samsung 840 EVO series. They seem to have the best price and competitive performance.

When I worked in the real world I wore a wrist watch all the time. But since retiring, and especially since getting a smart phone, I have found it more bothersome than helpful. If I want to know the time there are usually clocks around, and if not I can pull my phone out of my pocket pretty easily. And as a retiree it isn’t too often that I really need to know the time.

But I have been intrigued by the idea of a “Smart Watch” that is Bluetooth linked to your phone, and so I got one for my birthday. There are a few on the market, but the “Pebble Watch” seemed to be the most useful.

When something arrives at my phone, such as email, text messages or phone calls, the watch vibrates and shows me a summary of the event. Without pulling the phone out of my pocket I can read the message, and if it is a phone call see who is calling and either reject or accept.

The watch also gives control over music playing on the phone, but I rarely listen to music and don’t expect to use that capability.

There are more and more apps available that can give information such as weather, stocks, sports, Tweets, etc. It can display GPS turn-by-turn info, give feedback on exercise, or act as a pedometer. I’m still exploring.

I’m still not sure how useful it will be, and if the inconvenience of wearing a large (though lightweight) watch on my wrist will be worth it. And I can already hear comments about how tied we already are to our phones in this always-connected world. I enjoy being connected, but this may push it too far.

I’ll post an update after wearing it for a few weeks.

We got home from Asia about 7:00 pm last night. Our clocks are still turned around and I can barely stay awake this afternoon, but I had no trouble getting up for basketball at 5:00 this morning. In fact I wouldn’t have had trouble getting up at 3:00 since I was awake anyway.

I realized that in the past three weeks we flew 11 times; 11 take offs and 11 landings, on 4 different airlines (Southwest, Eva, Vietnam, and Cambodia Airlines). Gisele’s ear was fine on these last two flights, after having her eardrum lanced. She is glad she did it.

In the past we have almost always flown United Airlines anywhere in the world. Back when I was with Intel it was a reasonable choice and we built up a lot of miles. Last year we used our remaining miles upgrading a trip to business class, so we are no longer tied to what has become a second-rate airline. This time we flew mostly on Eva, a Taiwan-based airline. The difference was significant. The United planes seem old, many of them don’t have individual TVs at each seat and they are cramped. You can pay extra for “Economy Plus” and get a few more inches of legroom, but nothing else.

On Eva every seat has a TV with DVR-like pause/resume capabilities, and a long list of movies to watch. On this trip I saw “Frozen”, “12 Years a Slave”, “Captain Phillips” and a documentary on Angkor Wat. Eva’s premium economy (called “Elite”) comes with several additional perks. Besides more legroom, the seats are wider and recline further with foot rests. Luggage is tagged priority and comes onto the carousel sooner. Elite passengers board early and get off early, and have their own check-in counter. Unfortunately the recline was not quite enough that I slept really comfortably, but it was better than vanilla economy. I wish we could afford to travel first or business class all the time, with the fully reclining beds, but it’s just too much.

Our flight out of Taipei was delayed almost an hour and our connection in Los Angeles was tight. I was really glad we participate in the “Global Entry” program. I’ve mentioned that program before. We got off the plane, walked past the long 30 – 40 minute lines at US Immigration directly to an open kiosk. Scanned our passports and fingerprints and were on our way in less than 5 minutes. We walked to the luggage carousel where we were the first ones from our flight, and within 5 more minutes our priority bags came out of the chute and we were on our way. We made the Southwest flight and got our luggage rechecked with little time to spare. We certainly wouldn’t have made it without Global Entry.

It was quite an adventure. Vietnam was not what I was expecting, especially around Da Nang. I’d like to go back there and spend a couple of weeks. Cambodia was closer to what I expected, though very different from the insanity of “The Killing Fields”. Everywhere we went in both countries people were friendly and welcomed us (and our US dollars of course). But it’s nice to be back home.

Gisele, not me. She has a middle ear infection, that was pretty painful when we landed in Taiwan a few days ago. She went to see a local ENT specialist on Monday and got some medicine. Today she went back and had her eardrum lanced.

It was less painful than she was afraid it would be. The doctor strongly recommended the procedure if she was planning to fly as soon as tomorrow. He said there was a risk of serious damage to the eardrum otherwise, but after the lancing the risk is almost zero. He said it should heal within a few days. Donna, I remember you had this done when you were a little girl. I don’t remember you saying that it hurt less than you expected.

Of course, since she is not a citizen it was “very expensive” — about $15 for each visit including antibiotics and the lancing.

We get on a plane on Thursday evening in less than 24 hours and will arrive home Thursday evening, gaining back the day we lost when we came.

Well, compared to Vietnam it seems like home to me. I speak the language, and am familiar with the customs.

We arrived last evening around 5 and had dinner with Devon and Xiang Xiang (Elena). Western food! Barbecued chicken cutlet, salad, soup, macaroni side. I love Chinese and Vietnamese food, but after two weeks my stomach was getting homesick.

I expected the airport yesterday to be buzzing with added security after the lost Malaysian airline which happened just a few hours before we took off, not far from where we were. But everything was normal. We didn’t even have to take our shoes off. Nobody seemed nervous.

As I write this it has just been reported that they believe they have sighted a door from the aircraft in the water. Though there was already little hope, that pretty much eliminates any. Interpol has just reported that nobody checked with them on the stolen passports, which points a finger at Malaysian Airlines not doing a thorough security check on its passengers. Cross them off my list for flying.

Anyway, back in Taiwan, blah blah blah, nothing else new to write about.

We explored some more ruins today that were very nice, but having seen Angkor Wat they were anticlimactic.

I thought instead of discussing the ruins I would show a little about life in “modern” Cambodia.

The only form of transportation we have used in the country are tuktuks. Tuktuk is a somewhat generic word for simple forms of transport in many third world countries from Africa through Asia, usually serving the function of a taxi. In Cambodia they take the form of a 2-wheeled cart pulled by a small motorcycle, usually about 100cc. Top speed is about 20 miles per hour (measured by my GPS app). The occupants are almost exclusively tourists.

Here Angela and Da Quan are getting into their tuktuk. Gisele and I rode another one.

Here are a couple of gas stations by the road, with an attendant standing by.

The attendant is adding a liter of gas to our tuktuk.

We drove for over an hour through the countryside today and saw lots of rural scenes.

Here is a typical house on stilts.

We are all really enjoying the fresh tropical fruits, including mangos, mangosteens, and many others I don’t know the names of. It’s common to get a fresh coconut for the drink with the meal. They cost about a dollar, and the milk (about a pint) is fresh, clear and sweet. Sometimes after drinking the milk we have them cut open so we can spoon out the soft flesh coating the inside. Nothing like the coconut we can get in the US.

This is my coconut, and across the table Angela is scooping out the flesh of hers.

Tomorrow we briefly visit a museum about Angkor, and then catch an early afternoon flight back to Saigon (HCM City).

I left my keyboard in Vietnam along with most of our luggage, so this will be short.

We visited the ancient temple of Angkor Wat today, and I was more impressed than I expected to be. It is a huge temple complex covering many acres. Visitors are allowed to wander around with few restrictions, able to view close up and touch the many detailed and beautiful bas relief carvings covering most of the walls. It was quite fascinating.

Machu Picchu was impressive more for the setting than the ruins themselves, high in the rugged green Andes. Angkor Wat is much bigger, more detailed and much better preserved. The jungle setting is also striking, but I could do without the accompanying sweltering heat. At least it’s not the rainy season.

There are several other similar ruins nearby, some of which we viewed today and will continue to explore tomorrow.

I’m back in Saigon as I write this, getting ready to catch a plane to Siem Reap, the city near Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

We went on a boat ride in Ha Long Bay near Hanoi last week. The scenery is spectacular with sheer cliffs rising out of the water in hundreds of islands. Unfortunately there was heavy fog on the whole trip, so we couldn’t see the cliffs until we got within a quarter of a mile or less. Still worthwhile to see, but we missed the full grandeur. It was nice that our group of 14 had the whole 30 – 40 foot boat to ourselves, so in between seeing scenery there was lots of chatting and laughing.

Five people taking pictures of the others. No scenery, just sitting on the boat. In a minute several people will swap places to take more pictures. It’s an addiction!

So far my stomach has been behaving. It’s almost guaranteed that if you travel in South East Asia long enough you are going to get sick, but I’m hoping that long enough is longer than we stay. Gisele has had a little upset, but Imodium took care of it. One of our companions hasn’t been so lucky and has spent some sleepless nights. I’m being very careful, not eating ice, and limiting the raw vegetables.

One of the biggest dangers of Saigon is purse snatchers. They don’t limit themselves to purses either, happy to grab backpacks, phones, whatever is within reach. They roam the streets on motorcycles and as they come upon an unwary pedestrian they reach out and make a grab in passing, and then are gone before you can react. So far we have been lucky, but everyone warns us at least twice a day to watch your stuff. When Gisele was a teenager living here she had a gold necklace grabbed from around her neck. It seems like Saigon is the worst (and reportedly getting worse), and we didn’t hear warnings in the other parts of the country, though I’m sure the threat is real everywhere.

Speaking of motorcycles, the streets are full of them, maybe 50 motorcycles for every car. And crossing the street is something like playing Frogger. You slowly make your way into the stream of traffic while the motorcycles swerve around you, horns blaring. The secret is to not make any sudden moves. They see you from a long way away and as they approach they have already calculated how to pass you, but if you suddenly leap forward or stop you will upset their plans and you could be in danger. Traffic is an apparent chaos, but we have only seen one minor accident since we’ve been here. There are order and rules in the apparent anarchy, and everyone knows who has the right of way in a given situation. The one accident I know about was a motorcycle who obliviously pulled out in front of our bus. We swerved at the last moment, but clipped the bike. We stopped for a minute to make sure the driver was OK, and then proceeded on our way.

I think everyone on the tour agrees that the favorite place was central Vietnam around DaNang and Hue. Weather, scenery, hotels, everything was very nice.

I’ve mentioned before that we see a lot of Europeans, especially in the center of the country but there are also many in Saigon and Hanoi. There is the usual dichotomy; about half are scruffy young people in their 20s with backpacks out for adventure, and the other half are overweight, retired tourists. Probably more than half are from France; the French seem to love Vietnam and because of their earlier occupation there are many French speakers here, more than speak English. I rarely hear tourists speaking English, and when I do it is never with an American accent.

We flew back to Saigon last night and had a last dinner together with all the tour. Today four of us, Gisele, sister Angela, brother DaChuan and I fly to Cambodia to spend 3 days exploring Angkor Wat and surroundings.

When I think of Cambodia I can’t help but think of the movie “The Killing Fields”. An excellent, dramatic movie, if you haven’t seen it. I know things have changed a lot since then, but that’s the image in my mind. Even as my image of Hanoi has changed, I’m sure that will happen with Cambodia too.

Today we flew from Danang in central Vietnam to Hanoi in the north. Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and is now the capital of the whole country.

After landing we rode in a bus for a few hours to the town of Ha Long on Ha Long Bay. I think we will spend a night back in Hanoi before we fly back to Saigon on Monday.

The north seems less developed than the south. Roads are rougher and drivers are crazier. I liked the food in the south better too, though tonight’s dinner was pretty good.

Hanoi brings back memories of the Vietnam War. Though I was not in Vietnam during the war, of course, Hanoi was talked about in the press as representing the Communist north, the Viet Cong. It seems a little strange to have flown in as a tourist.

Anyone who has ever visited a tourist destination knows that Asians love to take pictures. The group I am with is no exception. Sometimes it seems like the only reason to visit a site is to take a picture of the whole group lined up facing the camera in front of some beautiful scene or historic monument, with several different cameras each time. I get a little frustrated because I’d rather walk around and experience the area first hand instead of memorializing it for later. On the other hand, I do enjoy having pictures after I get home, so I can’t say it’s all bad.

Personally I prefer to take candid pictures of people actually enjoying the scenery or interacting with each other. I often take pictures of people taking pictures, because that is really recording typical events. To me these pictures are more likely to bring back memories of the event than standing in two lines smiling into the camera.

Tomorrow we are going on a boat into Ha Long Bay to view the amazing sheer mountains that stick up out of the water.