To Ecky Thump Or Not?

Usually when traveling in China the taxi drivers are pretty good. About the worst one would expect in Beijing for example is a taxi driver that refuses to take you somewhere. However, once in a taxi I have found they either use the meter or they give you a reasonable price. Most will use the meter if you ask them to.

The above has been my experience in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Suzhou, and Chengdu. Not so in Shenzhen :(

I flew into Shenzhen for the first time ever and arrived at 2330. On walking out of the airport I was accosted by a horde of unlicensed taxi drivers. So far, this is par for the course in China. However what happened next was pretty crappy to say the least.

I walked past the unlicensed gang as I always do and went to the taxi rank. Jumped into the first taxi and gave the driver the address of my hotel. The driver turned and said, "how much"? My response was "use the meter please", whilst I indicated with gestures to help make myself understood. He understood, but refused to use the meter. I jumped out and then into the next taxi in line. The exact same conversation followed. I tried one more taxi with the same result.

I found myself surrounded by non-English speakers, no police or airport staff in sight and no way of knowing which bus I might catch if I could find one. I was forced to negotiate with some taxi drivers on a price. I called the hotel and asked them how much it should cost... "100 RMb and it should take 30 minutes", was the response.

Now I had to negotiate a price as no one would take me and use the meter. I found myself surrounded by around 10 "licensed" and "unlicensed" drivers. The "gang" decided the starting price would be 400 RMB. After several minutes and lots of back and forth no one would go below 180 RMB... Biting the bullet at midnight I jumped in and was whisked off to the far dark end of the airport and told to get out of the taxi under a dark underpass. I was now a good half kilometer away from where I started.

I jumped out, as did the driver. He was constantly saying "ok, ok, ok" and "look, look, look" while he would use the remote on his key chain to flash the hazard lights on a different taxi parked nearby. Somehow I think he expected this would make me feel more at ease about the whole affair.

Suffice to say I was on heightened alert. Standing in a position where I could better defend my self I was thinking the whole time I might have to do some ecky thump here.

After around 10 minutes I was ushered into the car with the flashing hazard lights. We sat, and then after a further 10 minutes and several phone calls (the "taxi driver" was making them every few minutes) another car appeared. It was a normal sedan and in good condition. An unlicensed taxi after all it would seem.

I was relocated to my third vehicle for the night. Money exchanged hands between the original and new "drivers" and I began to wonder if I was going to be spirited away somewhere only to appear on CNN as a kidnap victim some days later...

I positioned myself behind the driver and ensured I could open the door whilst the vehicle was moving... more thoughts of ecky thump.

We sped off down a main road and a few minutes later the first taxi driver pulls us over by flashing his lights and pounding on the horn. Some more money exchanges hands between them.

At this I jump out and move to the back of the vehicle and demand my bags be taken out of the boot. Both my new and former drivers are saying "no, no, no". At this point I became agitated, to put it mildly. For some reason both of them took a few steps back and remotely opened the boot.

I took my bags, put them in the first taxi and demanded I be taken back to the airport. Or at least I tried to demand this.

The original driver, by my actions, now "knew" I wanted to be taken to the hotel. More money changed hands between the two "drivers" and we were off again. Now the driver is visibly angry and driving dangerously. Dangerous even by normal Chinese driving standards.

He drove me part way to the hotel and pulled over next to yet another taxi and started a conversation with the newest of driver. My bags were taken out, and I was moved to yet another vehicle. More money changed hands between these first and third "drivers".

At this stage an older lady wanders down the road and jumps in without a word. We finally depart with driver three and old lady riding shotgun chatting away incessantly about something.

Around 20 minutes later I arrive at my hotel.

During this adventure I felt as though I was in real danger at several key moments. I was constantly weighing my options; should I run, strike, or ride it out and see what develops.

In the end all was well enough, but suffice it to say I will not be flying into Shenzhen at that time of night again. Actually I would highly recommend flying to Hong Kong and then catching the train into Shenzhen and getting off as close to your hotel as possible. Then taxi from there as the non-airport taxis seemed fine enough.

iPhone Apps Pricing Differences Between Regions

Recently I changed phones and decided to go with the iPhone. Besides battery life and the Apple iTunes lock in I'm happy with the device. Sidenote: why can't they make the device present as a USB hard drive?

However, the thing that gets me really annoyed is the way Apple locks you into iTunes by region. The really cruddy thing about this, beside the interface only being localised for the region you are in, and that some apps are missing altogether, is the price differences between region.

This is just one example, iSSH retails for 4.99 USD on the US iTunes site, and retails for 600 YEN on the Japanese. At current exchange rates that makes the local price approximalely 150 yen (1.70 USD) more.

C'mon what is the justification for this kind of difference in price?

OpenSolaris 2008.11 as a DomU running on a Linux Dom0

I'm not going to write yet another tutorial on how to setup OpenSolaris as a DomU running atop a Linux Dom0. What you will find here are my cfg files.

Dom0

• Xen 3.3
• Linux xen 2.6.18-xen-r12 x86_64 Dual-Core AMD

DomU

• SunOS opensolaris-01 5.11 snv_101b i86pc i386 i86pc Solaris

cfg file used during the install

# -*- mode: python; -*-
import os, re
arch = os.uname()[4]
if re.search('64', arch):
arch_libdir = 'lib64'
else:
arch_libdir = 'lib'

kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
builder='hvm'
device_model = '/usr/' + arch_libdir + '/xen/bin/qemu-dm'

memory = "512"
shadow = "2"
name = "opensolaris-01"
vif = ['type=ioemu, bridge=xenbr0']
dhcp = "dhcp"
vcpu="2"
disk = [ 'phy:xenvg/open-sol-01,hda,w','file:/xen/iso/osol-0811.iso,hdc:cdrom,r' ]

boot='d'

usb=0 # No USB support

sdl = 0
vnc = 1
vncpasswd='password'
vnclisten='192.168.1.10' # Replace this with the IP address of Dom0
serial='pty'
stdvga=0

on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot = 'destroy'
on_crash = 'destroy'


cfg file used for normal running

# -*- mode: python; -*-
import os, re
arch = os.uname()[4]
if re.search('64', arch):
arch_libdir = 'lib64'
else:
arch_libdir = 'lib'

kernel = "/usr/lib/xen/boot/hvmloader"
builder='hvm'
device_model = '/usr/' + arch_libdir + '/xen/bin/qemu-dm'

memory = "512"
shadow = "8"
name = "opensolaris-01"
vif = ['type=ioemu, bridge=xenbr0']
dhcp = "dhcp"
vcpu="2"
disk = [ 'phy:xenvg/open-sol-01,hda,w','file:/xen/iso/osol-0811.iso,hdc:cdrom,r' ]

boot='c'

usb=0 # No USB support

sdl = 0
vnc = 1
vncpasswd='password'
vnclisten='192.168.1.10'
serial='pty'
stdvga=0

on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot = 'restart'
on_crash = 'preserve'

First a blog now facebook

For no particular reason I have never been interested in social networking sites, or writing a blog. However, about a year ago a friend sent me an invitation to join Linkedin. I signed up and within a couple of days I was back in touch with people I had not seen in decades.

I played about with Linked in for a few hours. Checking things out and generally getting a feel for it. After this I stopped using it and pretty much only touch it if someone sends me a request to "connect".

Now fast forward to two days ago and a friend tells me she uses facebook daily. She said it is an great way to keep in touch with distant friends. So, I signed up for an account and, as was the case with Linkedin, I have found myself in touch with people I have not seen nor heard from in a decade or more.

I wonder how long facebook will hold my interest for...

My facebook profile

Rental Car Insurance - worth it, or not?

DO NOT take this post as advice of any kind. Read your rental car policy thoroughly and make your own decisions.

Recently my wife and I hired a car for two weeks from Avis, Australia. I decided, as I always do, to not take the "insurance" that was on offer. Unfortunately a car park accident during this trip has made me rethink my position on rental car "insurance". Rethink, but not change my stance.

What most people do not realise is that ALL rental cars are insured regardless of you paying the extra for "insurance". The difference is between paying a higher premium or a higher excess. Premium fees are the, usually daily, amount of money that you pay in order to lower your excess. Excess is the amount you have to pay in the event of an accident. So really the "insurance" option should be called the "high premium" option. Calling it the "insurance" option leads people to belive that they are driving around completely uninsured. Obviously this is something that you do not want to do and something the rental car company does not want you to do.

Anway, to better explain why I think the "insurance" option is not worth while (for me at least) some numbers are in order (current for Nov 2008, Avis Australia). All dollar values are in Australian Dollars:

The "insurance" option
$35/day
Excess $300

The "no insurance" option
$0/day
Excess $2,500

In the event of an accident you have to pay the full excess amount no questions asked. However, a refund will be repaid if the repairs end up costing less than the excess. No portion of the premium amount is refunded under any circumstance! Now with this in mind lets explore the difference between the "insurance" option and the "no insurance" option in the event of a minor accident.

Scenario One - Minor Accident (14 day rental)
In this scenario we have a broken side mirror that will cost $500 dollars to repair.

"Insurance" Case
14 days x $35 = $490
Excess = $300
Total "insurance" paid = $790
Repair Cost = $500
Refund = $0
Out of pocket amount = Total "insurance" paid - Refund ($790)

"No Insurance" Case
(Once again please note that even though I'm calling it the "no insurance" option your are insured - with Avis Australia at least)
14 days x $0 = $0
Excess Paid = $2,500
Repair Cost = $500
Refund = $2,000
Out of pocket amount = Total "insurance" paid - Refund ($500)

In this scenario you can see that with accidents that cause less than $790 worth of damage you are better off with the "no insurance" option.

Scenario Two - Major Accident (14 day rental)
In this scenario we have a multiple car accident.

"Insurance" Case
14 days x $35 = $490
Excess = $300
Total "insurance" paid = $790
Repair Cost = 1 metric gazillion dollars
Refund = $0
Out of pocket amount = Total "insurance" paid - Refund ($790)

"No Insurance" Case
14 days x $0 = $0
Excess Paid = $2,500
Repair Cost = 1 metric gazillion dollars
Refund = $0
Out of pocket amount = Total "insurance" paid - Refund ($2,500)

In this scenario it is easy to see that accidents with dmage amounting to more than $790 the "insured" option is best.

However

Whilst I do not know if we will get any refund for our little car park accident I do know that this is the first time in years upon years of renting cars that I have ever had to claim for any kind of damage to a vehicle. I would estimate that at $35 a day and $300 excess I would have to have a fairly substantial accident every 8 weeks or so to make the "insured" option a good one. Remembering that all cars are in fact insured (with Avis at least ;)

2blog || !2blog

My cousin sent me an email asking about online photo albums and how to place "content" on the web. I replied with try out picasa (which I have tied out) and blogger.com (which I have not). Actually I have never used a blog before, so I thought I might as well give it a go and then I would be better equiped to give advice on such things.