Well after several visits, as well as the kind co-operation of Jill Bays, her family, and her students – I’ve finally managed to complete my short story on Jill.

It’s been educational in many ways. Jill’s life story is fascinating and I feel very lucky to have met her. But then that also contributed to the difficulty of producing a short piece like this – since I had over 40 minutes of recorded material. Reducing all of that to just 3 minutes and 44 seconds was a challenge.

I also learned a lot about the tools and techniques needed along the way - thanks in part to some kind words I received from Derek Williams at AsiaWorks.

I think it just about works, but like most things worth any effort – it takes practise – and so hopefully my next attempt will see some improvement in how the images and audio fit together as well as the technical quality of the audio recording.

You can listen to the 24 minute audio master hosted on Vimeo - here at…

Jill Bays – Full Length Audio

You can also download the following audio and video formats from here...

Jill-Bays-iPhone.zip (13MB)
Jill-Bays-854x480-MP4.zip (24MB)
Jill-Bays-HD-Windows.zip (81MB)
Jill-Bays-HD-Mac.zip (116MB)

Jill-Bays-Full-Length-Audio.zip (32MB)

Have been meaning to post this for a while now. You know that warm and friendly yellow rectangle? Well if you join their photo sharing site at National Geographic My Shot – be sure to ready the Rules and in particular – the Terms of Use.

Here’s the clause you need to be aware of… and what you’re effectively giving to National Geographic if you upload ‘any’ content to their site…. important bits in red-italic-bold.

5. For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in material you upload, comments you post, or other content you provide to the Site (“User Content”). By uploading User Content, you grant National Geographic (which includes its subsidiaries, affiliates, joint venturers, and licensees) the following rights: a royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license to display, distribute, reproduce, and create derivatives of the User Content, in whole or in part, without further review or participation from you, in any medium now existing or subsequently developed, in editorial, commercial, promotional, and trade uses in connection with NG Products. National Geographic may license or sublicense, in whole or in part, to third parties rights in User Content as appropriate to distribute, market, or promote such NG Products. An NG Product is defined as "a product of National Geographic, a subsidiary, affiliate, joint venturer, or licensee of National Geographic, in any language, over which National Geographic has "Editorial Control." For the purposes of this Agreement, "Editorial Control" means the right to review, consult regarding, formulate standards for, or to exercise a veto over the appearance, text, use, or promotion of the NG Product. You also agree that National Geographic may make User Content available to users of the Site who may display and redistribute it in the same way that National Geographic makes all other Content available.

Nikon have just released a firmware update for the Nikon D700.

To the Nikon guy that did this….

1) When the camera’s AF-ON button is pressed, the monitor turns off and a focus point can now be selected using the multi selector. 
2) When the MB-D10 AF-ON button is pressed (with AF-ON selected for Custom Setting a10 AF-ON for MB-D10), the monitor now turns off and a focus point can be selected using the multi selector.

Thank you….

Mac-http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/45639
Windows -http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/45637

I’m really impressed with what Think Tank have created in their Streetwalker backpack series. The Streetwalker Pro in particular is the perfect bag for my setup – holding an incredible amount of gear in what on the outside, looks like a fairly small and nondescript backpack. I also really like the Think Tank Lens Changer bags.

When I’m in walk and shoot mode – I use a Lens Changer 50, Lens Changer 75 Pop Down, Skin Strobe and an R U Thirsty water bottle bag – all attached to my Yates 1.75 inch Cobra CQB Belt. The belt wears just like an ordinary belt. And with a flannel short sleeve shirt covering the Skin Strobe at the back – it doesn’t actually ‘look’ like I’m carrying that much gear.

Here’s one configuration that I use for the Streetwalker Pro (click on the images for large size).

 

 

A pro body with three pro lenses, a flash, accessories and a tripod. The Streetwalker Pro copes with it all brilliantly and is extremely comfortable to wear. There’s also a deep groove down the back and lumbar padding – which lets air in, keeping your back cooler than a flat padded backpack would.

Think Tank really pay attention to detail as well. With the backpack and a few lens changers – all the rain covers are clearly labelled – so you know which rain cover to grab in a hurry to get your gear covered when you need to.

My only minor gripe – is that I wish they’d placed a cross strap just above the side pockets – one on either side – so that I could attach a Lens Changer bag to the side of the Streetwalker Pro for a little extra storage when needed.

Amazing bag. Thanks a bunch Think Tank. You’ve made a great bag at a very reasonable price to boot. :-)

A few weeks ago I was out taking pictures around the Rama VIII bridge here in Bangkok. I was on the Pin Klao side, having walked from the Rama VIII bridge to the Phra Pin Klao pier. I decided to sit by the river for a while and watch what was happening on that early Sunday morning.

There was plenty of activity. Folks making merit by releasing fish bought from the local markets into the river (a kind of last minute Buddhist reprieve). A few people actually bathing in the river and getting ready for the day.

And then this young women arrived carrying something bundled up in a towel – held like a doll, or small child closely against her chest. I couldn’t see what she was carrying – but I could see she was headed for the water. I asked her if she would mind if I took a few pictures.

It was then I saw that she was holding a hamster wrapped in a white towel.

I’ve tried to tell this story a couple of times now. Every time I do at least one of us ends up laughing – or trying to keep a straight face while I describe how I watched a young women bathe her hamster in the Chao Phraya River.

At the time I was confused, moved, and downright worried about how it was going to end up. The wake from passing boats was generating large enough waves to wash the hamster out into the river, and I was worried that if that happened, she would follow in a rescue attempt.

In the end the hamster was fine and after its bath waited obediently on its towel while its master proceeded to wash her hands and feet in the river.

I’ve seen some strange things in this part of the world – but I think it would be wrong to completely dismiss this as just another strange event without at least trying to understand why she did it; about what it meant for this women with such care and attention - to take her pet and bathe in the Chao Phraya River early on a Sunday morning in June.

Some applications deserve ‘outing’ and Nikon ViewNX is one of them. I’ve used at least a dozen image editors, viewers, managers over the years – and the one that potentially means the most to me – sucks big time.

Not long ago I bought some of Nikon’s top gear. I love their lenses, and the new FX bodies are out of this world – but Nikon – you need to get your software in order.

Below is a screen shot of Process Monitor – filtered for Nikon ViewNX. I stopped recording events after we hit two million. That’s 2,309,221 file system events – and Nikon ViewNX was still going strong.

What’s more, ViewNX and Capture NX 2 appear to have been developed by different teams (not even able to agree on where the NX should go), using different explorer components and other features. That’s just silly – since the navigation panel is an obvious candidate for object reuse. Not sure who’s UI tools they’ve used to skin their applications – but they both occasionally ‘drop’ their skin and revert to Windows classic chrome.

I don’t underestimate the size of the task in producing Mac and Windows versions of fairly hefty applications – but you guys need to do better than this. Capture NX even featured in a recent YouTube parody over the Nikon D3x – so I’m not alone in my concerns about Nikon software.

Bummer…

Probably another post that’s more tweet worthy than a blog post – but… I just can’t help it. I love ECCO shoes. I mean I really love them.

I probably shouldn’t. The pair I bought today is made from Yak leather and manufactured in Thailand. Questionable characteristics on both counts.

But they just feel so gooooood. I don’t mean just a little bit comfortable either – I mean they make me feel like walking that’s how darn good they are. I’ve bought ECCO shoes now for the last decade – casual, outdoor and work varieties. And each pair I’ve purchased has lasted between four and five years. The soles have never worn out and they’ve always felt better then the other brands I try when the time comes.

I don’t know how you guys do it – but thank you ECCO.

Well with a bit more time on my hands now, I was finally able to begin experimenting with high dynamic range images (HDR). I decided to give Photomatix a try - and this is my first attempt. A picture I took on a recent trip to Vientiane. It's a merged image from four separate photographs - each at a different exposure - hence the 'dynamic range'.

Will be having lots of fun with this over the next week or so. :-)

Speechless really. I’m not often lost for words – but this presentation by Patrick Dixon of Siemens leaves me speechless. Thanks to RFIDs on the Brain from Boing Boing (and Douglas Rushkoff via ‘Joe’).

April 13th 2009 will be remembered by me as one of the strangest days yet here in Thailand. I think the pictures pretty much tell the story; pictures of the last moments of a running skirmish between Red-shirt protesters and the Thai Army – while at the same time over on Silom Road - Thais were celebrating Songkran with characteristic enthusiasm.

Come with me on a journey – a journey of pain – a pain worse than bamboo slivers under your fingernails.

You see that picture to the left? That’s my laundry basket. I know, it’s not a fancy once – but it came with the serviced apartment I currently live in. But it’s really a mutant killer laundry basket. Really it is. I put my laundry in it… and then when I get my laundry back – anything that’s not on hangers – is folded and placed back inside the basket.

So then I have to reach inside the basket and take out folded shirts, shorts, jeans, whatever. And that’s when it happens. That’s when the  mutant killer attack laundry basket strikes! You see the next picture below?

Take a good look at the notches cut into the side of the basket – somebody's idea of an artistic motif maybe? Nope – a really insidious man-trap. I reach in to grab my laundry – my fingers travel down the inside of the basket – and then wham! – one of those little notches catches my fingernail and I’m done. A perfect fit – finger in the notch, small barb of the notch under my fingernail. It’s all over.

I figured it was about time I blogged about this book (following on from Hans Rosling’s superb TED lecture - below).

A few years ago a friend recommend a book by Erich Fromm called ‘The Heart of Man’. I had trouble finding the title at the time, however in the process discovered what I believe is considered to be one of Fromm’s most famous works - ‘The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness’ – published nine years after ‘The Heart of Man’,  and incorporating many of his earlier published ideas concerning human behaviour and culture.

The book is written in an uncomplicated, highly educational and engaging narrative that just about anyone can read. Fromm’s analysis of the instinctivism of Konrad Lorenz, to the behaviourist B.F. Skinner was eye opening. For me the most valuable lesson in the book was his description of the primary drivers in human nature; co-operation and conflict avoidance, the desire to achieve and the desire to share.

As some of the reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere have also said – this is probably the most important book I’ve ever read. Read it – and you’ll see why.

Well at least I can’t be accused of lazy journalism.

I went back to Luang Prabang on the 5th of March – and took with me many of the pictures I’d taken there on my previous trip.

I was able to find most of the people in the pictures and give them prints – including the kids at the school, most of the apprentice monks and other people that I’d photographed there.

While looking for two kids I’d photographed playing on the banks of the Khan river, I met a women with her son who recognised one of the boys in the photo and offered to take me to his village. We passed a small school and entered an even smaller village – where I was handed off to another woman sitting in front of a house in the village at the top of a path that led down to the river. She explained that the boys in the photo lived nearby – but that they were ‘in the river again’. So I sat there and chatted to a few people, several of which had brought their kids to an English lesson being held privately in the house at the top of the path. While talking to a couple of other kids – I asked them if they knew anyone that sold crafts at the night market in Luang Prabang. One of the girls said that her family made silk and cotton fabric that they sold to vendors at the night market as well as to the market at Ban Pa Nom.  I asked her if I could see where they made their fabric and she said yes.

Her name was Por, and she was there with a friend - Leh. They’d brought their bicycles and decided that I would ride one of them while the two rode tandem on the other. Not wanting to miss a photo opportunity I proceeded to peddle a rather precarious one-handed route across dirt and sealed roads while taking pictures. To the right is a picture of Por (left) and Leh (right) on the way to Por’s home in Ban Pon Sa-at.

Por is the youngest in the household with three older sisters and an older brother. The two oldest sisters Pu and Nic have finished school and weave as well as help out around the home full-time. Ot, the next youngest, and Por are still in high-school. Cam-Noy, their brother, is just finishing high school and is the only one that will go on to a vocational college to study ‘phi-fa’ (electricity). 

Here’s a picture of the four girls weaving on traditional shuttle looms, Pu (left), Ot (front), Nic (furthest back – just visible) and Por (right).

The following day I was able to find a small Kodak lab in town and printed the pictures of the family at their looms and at the house. I called their mother and asked if I could come to visit again and bring them their pictures. She said yes – and while I was there I took a few more pictures and also suggested that perhaps for International Women’s Day (on Sunday the 8th of March) they’d all like to go to the famous Tat Kuang Si waterfalls – not far from Luang Prabang. Surprisingly, considering they’d known me for less than 24 hours – they thought that would be great. I organised a mini-van from the hotel and came back on Sunday to pick them up for our big trip to Tat Kuang Si.

There were twelve of us in total (I think) – all of Por’s family, plus several nephews and nieces – all piled into the van. The first thing you discover when taking kids from a relatively small village on a trip in a van along some windy roads – is that they’re not used to riding in vans on windy roads – and about 20 minutes into the trip we had what can only be described as a ‘barf-o-rama’. At one point when we’d run out of plastic bags we had to stop and take a barf break on the side of the road. Everyone was remarkably good natured about it – participants and viewers. :-).

On the way back from Tat Kuang Si – we visited Por’s grandparents at their village – set beside the Mekong river not far from Tat Kuang Si.

Por’s mother – Bang – began helping out with setting up the ‘warp’ to be used in one of several looms that were also at the grandparents’ house (the lengthwise yarn arrangement – red in this case - that is used in the shuttle loom to set the pattern threads against)

So.. in a round-about way, and while having more fun than I’ve had in ages… I discovered that the local markets, the night market in Luang Prabang, and the market at Ban Pa-Nom just outside of Luang Prabang – do in fact sell the textiles that are made in the homes of Laos villages all across the country. And that the rents paid in the markets are modest - about 8,000 Laos Kip per space per day – about 1 USD – for a space with two light bulbs, and that a fair percentage of the money we spend on crafts in these markets (at least the ones I visited) does in fact go directly to the families that make the products themselves – which is great.

The full set of pictures I took on this trip can be found here…

 

NOTE: The roman character transliteration of some nicknames in S.E. Asia can result in a word that would not only result this article being spam filtered – but might be less than kind to the owner of the name when read by those not familiar with the problem; and so the name of one of the girls featured in this post has been changed accordingly.

Is it just me – or is there something slightly odd about advertising export quality on a food product sold locally (like there should be any difference between domestic and export quality in the first place)?

I like these small salad packs; they come in classic, Japanese, ranch, Caesar, and a few other varieties – along with dressing and extra bits (croutons, bacon bits or poppy seeds etc.).

But the export quality label has always made me think – what exactly does this mean? Does it mean – don’t buy those contaminated domestic quality salads that the locals have to eat, when you can get the good stuff, the safer love health stuff that the rest of the world eats? Hmmm….

Have just returned from a four day visit to Luang Prabang. Four days is hardly long enough to get to know a place and the people that live there - but it was all the time I could spare on this occasion.

The trip began with an eventful arrival. I had less than the required six months left in my Canadian passport and so decided to travel on my UK passport - obtaining a tourist visa from the Laos embassy here in Bangkok. I used my Canadian passport to leave Thailand, and when I tried to enter Laos with my UK passport I was asked to 'have a seat' in a small office and wait while several officers of various rank (over a period of about an hour) came in and explained that I would have to pay a US 200 dollar fine because there was no exit visa in my UK passport to prove that I had come from Thailand. For the most part I pretended to be clueless (not that difficult for me to do), pointing to my Laos visa, and at one point feigned a decision to go back to Bangkok. Smiling a lot probably helped. In the end the fine was reduced from 200 to 100 US dollars paid in Thai Baht. I'd love to know how it was divided up amongst the 'officials' on duty that day.

The rest of the trip went well and we had fun walking around the town, markets and temples. The views across the Mekong and Khan rivers in the early evening were beautiful. Most locals reported fewer tourists than last year due to a large number of cancellations caused by the problems in Thailand - in particular the recent closure of Suwanapoom airport in Bangkok. Perhaps things were a little more relaxed than usual as a result. We made merit at dawn on Friday morning giving rice, chocolate bars and small cartons of milk to the stream of monks leaving the temples to receive alms. I went again on my own on Saturday morning and shared my mat with a Swedish and American couple. I'd read about the concerns by some that the number of photo snapping tourists (including myself) at the early morning ceremony might be changing the nature of the ceremony for the worse, but the atmosphere was relaxed and respectful. It appeared to me that the right balance had been struck between those participating and those wanting to record the event.

The highlight of the trip was when we invited ourselves to visit the central Luang Prabang school. We spoke to students and their teacher during a Saturday afternoon class. The school is a combined primary, secondary and vocational college and the students were taking a lesson in nutrition. Most students had travelled by bus from the areas around Luang Prabang to attend class that day. I gave an impromptu (and brief) lesson in Canadian geography, explaining that at the moment the weather is very cold in Canada - reaching minus twenty degrees Celsius during cold snaps, and that there is plenty of snow. I told my usual stories, including how if you breathe in through your nose very quickly, your runny nose will instantly turn to ice (with the usual gasps of surprise followed very quickly by disbelief). And my old favourite - of how during the winter, people that have to park their cars very far from where they work don't always make it to the car before freezing like a statue - and have to be carried back inside to be warmed up before trying again (more gasps and then laughter as I pretend to be frozen). We bought the class a box of cakes, swapped email addresses and said our goodbyes after having rescued them from twenty minutes of nutrition.

I suppose if I have any misgivings about the trip as a whole, it would be the questions I continually asked myself which included: why were people coming to Laos?, and who benefits? One theory at least is that tourist dollars help the local economy and that some of this money will filter down to the average Laos person. Looking at the condition and teaching materials at the local school I struggled to see any immediate evidence of this. What's more - having lived in SE Asia for nearly a decade now, I've seen families that have become rich on tourist dollars - the fortunate ones that have land, or a house in just the right location, and my impression in most cases has been that these families tend not to share their wealth with their less fortunate neighbours. And then of course there is the system of patronage and corruption common in Asia which usually means that by the time tourist dollars have trickled down to the 'average' person, a large percentage has been siphoned off at the top.

The central night market in Luang Prabang is remarkably well organised and suspiciously homogenous in the goods that are on offer. I would have liked to ask the vendors who they bought their crafts from and how much they paid to rent their spot in the market.

I guess the other reason people visit a country like Laos is to experience the culture - to see how other people live and perhaps to learn something about the hardship experienced by those living in a developing country - in particular the minority areas. The trouble I have with this explanation is that Laos is a 'developing' country for some very good reasons. I'm not an expert on the history of the region, but after just a little reading on the topic it's easy to see how the recent and tragic history of Laos (as well as Cambodia and Vietnam) explains a lot in terms of its lack of development. According to the CIA world factbook the average life expectancy in Laos is just 56 years. So does this mean that as tourists, we are benefiting from a tragic past? That we're able to travel back in time to see the 'real Laos' - people in villages living a subsistence existence because of the chess piece wars and conflict in the region that stunted the development of a country which should otherwise have prospered? I'm not sure, and that's probably a simplistic view of the complex combination of conflict, culture, religion and environment that have helped to create and shape the country as it is today.

So would I go back? Yes I would. The people are truly friendly and welcoming. I'd love to spend more time in Laos travelling and talking to people about how they live and the changes occurring in their country.

For now at least I'll have to accept that after such a short trip - I'm barely qualified to comment, and close to justifiably being accused of being a 'flash-packer' in Luang Prabang for four days :-)

The full collection of the pictures I took in Luang Prabang can be found here.

It's taken me about a month to settle on an auto focus strategy for my D700.

I skipped several generations in film and digital SLRs, so getting up-to-speed with the D700 as well as re-learning some of the basics in focus and exposure has taken me a little longer than I'd thought it would.

Thanks to a couple of good forum posts - in particular this one - D700 and autofocus at Photo.net - I now have a much better understanding of how auto focus works in the D700, and in particular the focus points and what to expect in terms of different scenes, lighting and camera orientation.

There's a consensus that the cross type focus points - 15 of them located in the centre of the 51 AF point matrix mean that you may occasionally find it hard to focus vertically (portrait) when using one of the edge focus points. In low light with little contrast and a lack of horizontal lines under the focus point this might be true - and I've been able to reproducibly see the difference in test shots against a target - but in practice - outside and focusing on people at events, or on the street, I'm finding the edge focus points are working ok.

So here's my recipe for fast(ish) focusing - in particular when photographing people at events or outdoors - in either landscape or portrait mode.

1) Remove the focus from the shutter button - (option a5:AF Activation - set to AF-ON button only). I was actually told to do this a while ago by a good friend, Patrick de Noirmont - but like most things - I have to learn them the hard way. :-) There are a couple of good reasons for this. For one, I was losing pictures when I was occasionally slipping, or releasing the focus after recomposing. The D700 is not a light camera (even without the battery pack) especially when there's a 70-200mm/2.8 lens attached to it and so it's possible to lose the 'feeling' of the half-pressed shutter button in all that weight. Moving focus off of the shutter button guarantees that you won't accidentally refocus after recomposing. What's more, you can always pull focus manually and know for sure that pressing the shutter button isn't going to change anything.

2) Leave the focus mode in continuous servo AF mode (the switch on the side). By moving the focus to AF-ON only - you effectively get both single servo and continuous servo focus. Press once for the equivalent of Single-servo mode - press and hold for continuous AF mode. Kills two birds with one stone and no need to flip the switch.

3) This one's important.. turn OFF the image review under the playback menu. Here's why. If you're shooting an active scene (again - an event or people moving around outside) then you're likely going to be moving the focus point using the multi-selector (multi-wheel), focusing, and recomposing repeatedly (especially if you're switching between horizontal and vertical composition). I want this process to be as fast and as fluid as possible. The bad news is that pressing the AF-ON button (or the AE-L/AF-L button) won't interrupt the image review like the shutter button does (turning off the monitor). If you have your eye to the view finder - having just taken a picture, and then try to move your focus point by pressing the multi-selector (before focusing again or recomposing) - you'll actually be moving through images in playback mode on the rear screen. If you don't turn off image review - then you'll have to press the shutter button first - and while that might not sound like a big deal, it's an extra button to push and when you want to move a focus point, refocus and shoot in under a second - it gets in the way.

And that's it... :-)

The results below - after a quick switch from portrait to horizontal - placing a focus point on the eyes (yes - the eyes) with no recomposing.

Device:    Nikon D700
Lens:    VR 70-200mm F/2.8G
Focal Length:    180mm
Focus Mode:    AF-C
AF-Area Mode:    Dynamic, 9 points
VR:    ON
Aperture:    F/2.8
Shutter Speed:    1/125s
Exposure Mode:    Manual
Exposure Comp.:    +0.3EV
ISO Sensitivity:    Auto (ISO 1800)

Well partly as an act of procrastination (the books and reading are piling up), and partly in recognition of the fact that the previous design sucked big time... I've redesigned the blogs and photo gallery. It took three days in total - and I think the results are ok. At least I think it sucks less than the previous design.

Thanks to firebug and a list of fairly well known IE7 issues - it went pretty well this time. No major CSS gottchas... a pretty good two column liquid layout and drop shadow as well as less cruft. I've dropped IE6 support - too much pain to go there and well.. it's my site... :-)

Not sure what came over me. It's not my birthday, and it's not Christmas. And I'm so deep into studies at the moment that I'll only be able to use it on and off over the next few months, but...

...I bought a Nikon D700 yesterday. What an amazing camera. 12.1 Mpixels, full frame (FX), 3D Color Matrix II, 5-8 fps, and unbelievably fast and sharp in low light.

 

I purchased the body from AV Camera, who are a very well known authorised dealer here in Bangkok.

The AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED and AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED from Sunny Camera - MBK 3rd floor, 3c33 - also an authorised Nikon dealer.

Ken Rockwell's site was an invaluable reference when looking at options for lenses. Most people, including Ken don't rate the 24-120mm VR that is advertised in many bundled packages for the D700. The Nikon 24-85mm is very sharp - but as Ken says, you need to be aware of the barrel and pin cushion distortions at fully wide and full zoom positions.

Here's a picture I took at Victory Monument last night. The NEF RAW version is incredibly sharp and rich in detail, with almost no discernable noise (click for a larger JPEG version).

 

Can't wait for my next trip - probably to Luang Prabang to put the D700 to work (albeit in my amateur hands).

Hehe... couldn't resist. I've seen quite a few product names in Asia that become lost in translation, but I'm struggling a little to understand what was on the mind of the Glico product executives when they decided to launch 'Collon Biscuit Rolls'.

 

An unfortunate incident today with Agoda Online Travel.  This is a site I've used once before to make a reservation for a hotel in Hong Kong. Unfortunately on that occasion we had to cancel. Agoda's cancellation policy for this booking meant that we lost US$15 on the booking, but I figured that was a reasonable penalty to pay as an administrative fee. Overall I found the service easy to use and thought highly of Agoda (at the time).

A couple of days ago I booked another hotel in Hong Kong and yet again - a change in plans meant that we needed to cancel this booking too. However this time I was stunned to discover that we would loose the FULL AMOUNT of the booking.

At the time I made the reservation - I mistakenly assumed that the cancellation policy we'd used on our previous booking - was an Agoda site-wide policy. I didn't realise that the cancellation policy can be different between bookings. Ok - you could argue that would seem logical.. but I was caught out for a couple of reasons.

Firstly - the link to the cancellation policy is at the bottom of the page and as in the screen shot attached (click to view the larger image) - says... Please click here for 'Cancellation Policy'. It's missing a couple of important words. I think it should say - "Please click here for the Cancellation Policy for THIS BOOKING.".

Secondly - on three of the four step page process - you have to scroll down to see this link.

I think the cancellation policy should be displayed right there on the page - or at the least a warning message during the booking process that explains clearly that the cancellation policy can be different between hotels and bookings.

For example - I went back to review the cancellation policy for the exact same hotel, on the exact same dates - and the policy now indicated that only the first evening would be forfeited in the event of a cancellation - and that any remaining nights would be refunded. Hmmm....

Ok -so I don't have a problem with the cancellation policies per se. If we're getting discount rates, I'm prepared to lose some flexibility in changes or cancellation. However I think Agoda owes it to its customers to make it much clearer that these policies can be different between bookings. They should WARN their customers in particular when a booking is totally non-refundable.

What's more - and what made this particular incident a sour one - is that when I tried to explain my concerns to a supervisor at the Agoda call centre in Bangkok - the conversation (from the Agoda side) quickly descended into an argument about who's fault this was - and that other sites operate the same way, and so I was to blame. That wasn't really the point of the call. What I wanted was recognition of the problem. As far as I could tell, they were getting good feedback, and they could have used this as an opportunity to improve their services in a way that would help to build trust and reputation, as apposed to reducing it.

The old used-car sales tactics of 'fine print' that's hard to read, find, or subject to misinterpretation really don't belong on a modern Web site today. Too much is at stake. Reputation travels farther and faster than before.

So.. Agoda - if I can get passed your argumentative customer service supervisor in Bangkok - please change this single but important link on your site to "Please click here for the Cancellation Policy for this booking...". And if you really want to build trust - warn customers explicitly when the policy indicates that they are not allowed to change or cancel the reservation - without having to click on a link or open another window.

You can and should do better Agoda...

At dinner with friends last night - and one of my friends gave the quintessential Occam's Razor answer to why marriages fail. Occam's Razor...

"One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything".

And the reason? Well... we live longer. In the past, life expectancy was what... about 35, 40 years? Get married at 19 and you only have between 16 to 21 years to slog it out. Today, in the developed world - average life expectancy is around 74. Get married at 28 and you may end up with your significant other for a whopping 46 years! :-)

Having spotted a tweet on Pandora.com - and then of course discovering that Pandora.com is not available outside the U.S., I was inspired to take a proper look at Last.fm. Incredible. Download the desktop app, and the appropriate plug-in for your media player - and Last.fm will "scrobble" whatever you listen to, building up a recommended playlist; similar artists, genres etc. I wonder how Peter Gabriel's venture over at We7 will fare in the same space.

This made me laugh. You know a product has long since reached the 'tipping point' when even your cleaning lady tries to sell it to you. I was sitting here minding my own.. when my cleaning lady asked me if I would like to by some of the of the V word (I don't dare write it in full - since I suspect I'll be cast down into spammer hell if I do). Actually at first I didn't know whether to laugh or be worried. Do I look like I need it? Apparently her younger sister has a nice little sideline in 'other market' pharmaceuticals. Lol.

This is scary - U.S. School District to Begin Microchipping Students - as Karen Lawrence Öqvist"s points out as well.

I remember reading about high schools offering parents access to the school's Intranet to see whether or not their sons or daughters were actually at school or not, and I thought that was worrying at the time.

Another example of the continuing cycle of media and government generated fear being used to reduce civil rights in the name of 'security'?

Reading The Catcher in the Rye , or Nineteen Eighty-Four and students today might wonder why it is that they are able to easily identify with Holden Caulfied, or wonder perhaps whether or not they are actually living in 1984; while their freedom to make decisions (and accept responsibility for their actions) is being steadily reduced.

I remember some of the things I did in high-school. The choices I made weren't always the right ones - but they were an important part of growing up for me.

Teenage years are a complicated time. We're struggling to find the balance between life at home, life at school, our need to be accepted by our peers and even our need to be able to begin to form intimate relationships with others. What happens when a teenager suffers his or her first heart-break and is too embarrassed to tell their parents about it - and can't face going to school that day; just wanting a little down-time in order to try and resolve their feelings before facing the world again. Where does their freedom to choose to do that go?

Employees are protected from surveillance at work under various regulations (Lawful Business Practice Regulations in the UK). Surely our teenagers deserve equivalent protection from surveillance at school; where they deserve the right to prove they are responsible and trustworthy before losing their freedom to choose.

On my way back to Bangkok after a long weekend in Hong Kong.

Was very lucky with the weather and had a great trip. Saw most of the major site - including the The Big Buddha,  a trip up the tram to the peak, a visit to Stanley Market and Repulse Bay plus plenty of shopping and other sites. I was really impressed.

Hard to tell from just a weekend but I'd rank HK as a pretty good place to live. Pics are here...

If I could design the future of social networking it would look like this...

I'd have a platform... some kind of service or software platform, from within which I could blog, twitter, chat and link to the people I know. I'd be able to choose exactly what information I wished to publish and when, and whether that information was published to just my friends, or to the world.

I'd be able to host the platform anywhere I choose. I could pay for it, or it might be free. If I paid for it - I'd want total control over where and how any advertising was allowed from within or outside the platform.

Imagine taking the best of LinkedIn, a decent blogging engine, something twitterish, a good chat client, a good media sharing platform for photos and videos. Add a pinch of social bookmarking - and wrapping all of that up into a very cool platform that I can use to represent me and those I choose to interact with in the online world. A sort of Bittorrent-ish, Groove-ish application for society. Goodbye MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Skype, goodbye to all of the walled garden social networking sites - and hello to my own little neighborhood in cyberspace.

The end of walled gardens like Facebook and other social networking sites is actively being discussed. What's missing is the glue in standards and software to bring together an alternative. The big guys like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo want to try and grab on to this and hold on to it for its obvious potential in targeted marketing and advertising revenue.

I hope that doesn't happen. I hope we're each able to grab on to it, to control it and to use it to build new communities and socially meaningful ways of communicating with the world.

If you've never lived in a tropical climate before - there are a few things people need to warn you about. Firstly, I live in a small apartment (well the apartment is large - but it's a small building) and the landlord and us tenants don't really like to spray insecticides. We prefer to try and keep the place clean in order to keep the invertebrate population down.

It adds a new dimension to 'snacking' and keeping the place tidy. Drop just a few crumbs of that chocolate chunk cookie on the floor - and you're in big trouble. The main offenders are small red ants. When they show I know it because a bite from one of those tiny buggers gives me a lump the size of a golf ball. I remember once in Phuket - they were in the hotel I was staying in - or to be more precise - in the walls of the hotel - and crawling out from behind the towel rack in the bathroom. I grabbed a towel (as you do) after a shower and started to dry myself off and ouch. I won't go into any more details except to say I was pretty worried for about 24 hours.

And then there's the cute little gecko house lizards. These are actually good guys to have around since they eat bugs and insects; except when they crawl into the back of your computer and die. The smell is awful. Took me ages to figure out where it was coming from :-)

Ok - I admit it - I love Doritos - especially cheese flavored Doritos. I know they don't exactly fall into the category of health food - but I could eat a bag a day no problem.

There's a trick to getting Doritos here though (here in Bangkok). Local supermarkets do sell Doritos - but they seem to come in batches - and then disappear for a few weeks. So... I buy a LOT of them when they're here - enough to last until the next wave arrive. I was sort of hopping that some clever stock or inventory management system of the bigger supermarkets would have figured this out - and order more Doritos (ala Walmart), but it hasn't worked, and I'm sure when I hit the Dorito jackpot - there are a lot of unhappy Dorrito lovers here trying to work out where all the Doritos have gone.

I've been wanting to blog about this one for a while now.

Like a lot of Canadians that aren't from Quebec (i.e. any of the other nine provinces and two territories), we're all taught French at primary school; for me at least from grade five to eight. Of course the entire country prints all its product labels in French and English and all the road signs and government communication are bilingual as well. Why? Well that's a whole 'nother thing. The main thing however is that there's really no practical reason for speaking French in Canada, unless you live in Quebec. So unless you're from one of those families that either a) really encourages their kids to learn another language because they believe it will enrich their lives, or b) they're snobs - and dropping a little French in polite company is the best way to confirm their snob standing - then you will forget your French - if you actually remembered any in the first place - the minute you stop studying.

Then I moved to the UK. Ok I wasn't 'exactly' forced to learn another language. But I was in for a surprise. The subtleties (or perhaps better described as the brutality) of English slang, idiom and the vernacular took some getting used to. I began to see the important connection between language and culture. For the most part though - the main visual queues that I'd grown up with still worked. If someone smiled it probably meant they were happy. If they frowned or grimaced - something was up.

Then I moved to SE Asia, spending most of my time in Thailand as well as travelling to other countries in the region. And this is when it started to get interesting. Not only did it take a long time to figure out the basics - but the subtleties were even trickier.

Thai is part of the Tai-Kadai family of languages (formerly classified as part of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages). It's mono-syllabic and tonal - which means if I write the word - 'kaow' (phonetically) but pronounce it with five different tones (high, mid, low, rising, falling) - I get five different words (rice, enter, news, white and hill). Tones are a great vocabulary multiplier when you're running out of monosyllabic words. Once you can hear (and speak) the tones - within even a modest vocabulary - things start to open up. If you're lucky enough to be in the right environment, or around long enough to move on from the basics - then it gets really interesting. (Picture above: Talking to the monks at Wat Yai Chaimongkon in Ayuttahya.)

Thai is a language rich in character attributes. You can describe someone's nature, behavior, and habits - in just a few words - and those around you will either nod in agreement - or disagree and exchange their own short character describing phrases. Thai is an incredibly polite language - with degrees of politeness to suit many different situations, typically based on the authority, seniority, or age of the person you are communicating with.

I couldn't sum up Thai society in a blog post (even assuming I was qualified) - however what has really amazed me is the way in which their language, society and culture seem to match perfectly (ok – maybe that shouldn’t come as such a surprise – but it was very interesting to see how the three relate). Thais are witty and humorous, and not being overly serious matters a lot.

When you've begun to master a language in another culture (especially as different as those are from West and East) - and are able to start pushing back a little and probe more, you begin to understand what people mean, what's important to them, and what they are thinking. And that's just amazing, giving you a totally new perspective on how another group of people view the world.

Ok - second attempt, this time from Dabs.com. What an amazing camera; built-in neutral density filter if you want a wide aperture in bright light settings, auto ISO settings, image stabilizer, fully manual including focus and a great macro setting. 12.1 million pixels and overall picture quality that's pretty darn close to a professional SLR all from a camera that you can still attach to your belt. I'm a happy camper...

Born in Mississauga, went to high-school in Markham and college in Toronto. Grew up with a very 'Canadian' view of the world.

Spent a few years after graduation working in a laboratory as a research assistant (doing terrible things to cute little Chinese Hamsters) before it began to occur to me that working in Biology might not be for me. I spent a year working for IBM on a short term manufacturing contract in preparation for what I thought was going to be a year-out in Europe.

I flew to the UK in 1990 - September 17th to be precise (it was a dark and rainy night... lightening was everywhere).

Between travels (and while temping in an office in Stockport) I was offered my first job in IT - thanks to a kind gentleman named David Medcalf.  (My 'geekish' tendancies had not gone unnoticed). After 18 months on a help-desk at RoMEC, I accepted an offer to work for VNU publications - which meant that after a culturally educational stay in the North of England - I was now headed for the big city of London.

I helped to build editorial and publishing systems at VNU - which was a great way to get to know more about publishing, networks, Apple Macs and the journalist scene in London. In 1994 I moved over to Macmillan Publishers. Macmillan was probably my biggest break in IT. The office I started in on the Fulham Road was still using carbon paper and typewriters (this was 1994!). I was given a lot of freedom at Macmillan- free to succeed and fail. It was a formative five years and I'm grateful for the experience. In 1999 I decided to take another year-out to travel, spending the majority of my time in Asia.

In 2001 I joined a startup venture in Bangkok; an online, rights managed stock photography agency - which turned into the 'business experience of a lifetime'. It was tough going - and I learned a lot about business and people in the process.

In 2005 I was back in the UK working for Datapharm Publishers Ltd. A great assignment and a good bunch of people.

I've since started a MSc in Information Security at RHUL - which has turned out to be brilliant so far... and after that who knows what next...

Feel very lucky to have lived, travelled and worked across three continents. It's been an adventure to say the least.

If you've made it this far... and want a more formal introduction - then my CV is at http://www.abouch.com

'Per Ardua Ad Astra'

… well at least my version of a short consumer report.

I fly long-haul at least once a year. On the last trip I borrowed a set of noise cancellation headphones from a friend. Noise cancellation headphones contain a little battery powered receiver, usually in the headphone cord near your chest. It picks-up constant ambient sound noise and generates an inverse signal that cancels out a large portion of the ambient background noise. You don’t actually have to be listening to anything for them to work. Great when you want to sleep.

My friends set were a pair of Sennheiser PXC 250 – they were ok – although the regular headphone style is a little cumbersome. I was hoping to find a set of earbud-style noise cancellation headphones for my next trip in a week’s time. I normally do just enough research on the web before making any electronic consumer purchases to be ready and armed to shop and compare. And most times when I’ve failed to do that I’ve paid the price. Sadly this occasion was no exception. While in the local shopping center yesterday I came across a set of Philips SBC HN060 Active noise canceling headphones - earbud-style – and so I thought what the heck – time was limited – I picked them up.

First disappointment was that the battery supplied had leaked and was unusable (fortunately not inside the headphone battery pack). Second BIG disappointment was the sound quality. I have a really great set of Sony MDR-EX71 earbud style headphones (in my diminishing collection of Sony gear) and they are the best I’ve used to date – sound quality is excellent – good range and good low frequency response. The Philips active noise canceling headphones sounded tinny and weak. In fact the overall impression of poor manufactured quality and poor sound quality meant that this was a mistaken purchase for sure.

Although a little over a year old – here’s a good CNET review of noise cancellation headphones. Will be looking for the Sony set soon.