Benjamin Chong’s Blog

The joy of the ocean

24 June, 2009 by Benjamin Chong

Bramston Beach

My last weekend was fantastic; I spent it in Tropical North Queensland, enjoying Bramston Beach and its surrounds. I must say, the whole process of getting away, even for a short weekend does wonders for the mind. Even though some people get stressed out about getting to the airport, waiting for the flight, and squeezing into a small seat, I find the whole process quite relaxing, especially when you know you’re going away for leisure.

My Saturday morning was the highlight: still waking up early at 6.30am to the sound of breaking waves on the beach; walking up and down the beach with the sun steadily rising; admiring the distant islands. It really was idyllic and helped clear my mind from the stresses and strains of the week before. The rest of the day was no different: driving into Cairns; having brunch on the wharf; milling around the organic markets at the wharf-side centre; snoozing in the afternoon; finding a Chinese restaurant in Innisfail; losing a whole lot of poker chips.

For those of you who are need of refreshment, you could do much worse than than taking a short trip to enjoy the climate, coast, and hinterland of Tropical North Queensland.

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Build it and they will come

13 June, 2009 by Benjamin Chong

Third generation Toyota Prius

One of the feel good movies from the late eighties was the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams. Costner stars as Ray Kinsella, a cash-strapped American corn farmer who hears a voice say, “if you build it, he will come”. His mind envisions a baseball field, and despite his perilous financial situation, he ploughs ahead, with his wife’s support, to build a baseball field on his farm. Before long, a bunch of baseball greats who were banned from the game from their role in the 1919 World Series appear on his field, as part of Kinsella’s childhood baseball dreams come true.

Today, many carmakers face the same predicament: they have heaps of blueprints for oversized cars and SUVs; they have inefficient factories and expensive pension schemes to service; they’re facing the global financial crisis, with some up to their eyeballs in debt; total consumer demand is contracting; there are too many car brands and dealers. Yet, despite all this, there’s an unstoppable desire by normal every day people to ensure our environment is sustainable for future generations.

Is it any surprise then that Toyota’s new third-generation Prius, a hybrid motor car, has been large success? Launched earlier this year, it already commands a waiting list the envy of any General Motors or Chrysler dealer, and this is the dual-motor version! (The third-generation Prius features a petrol and electric motors.) In 2015, Toyota expects to launch a fully-electric car, one that’ll plug into the power grid much like your mobile phone. The reason for Toyota’s success here is the many years they’ve spent recognising the environmental trend and responding to it in a tangible way that’s appealed to customers. They’ve invested in hybrid, electric, and plug-in hybrids as they’ve realised different models will work with the different political environments in various countries. Toyota’s work in creating a highly aerodynamic car has also paid dividends; people really notice when you’re driving their distinctive Prius hybrid, compared with their US-market Camry hybrid. (The Prius has its own body shape while the Camry hybrid shares its body with the conventionally-powered Camrys.)

It just goes to show, if you build what the customer really wants, they’ll buy it! (The tricky part is working out what they want.)

Tags: cars, marketing
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Will the NBN be really that fast?

7 May, 2009 by Benjamin Chong

Earlier last month, the Federal Government announced it would establish a new company to build a “new super fast” National Broadband Network (NBN). The NBN is meant to provide 90% of Australian homes, schools, and workplaces with a 100 megabits per second connection to the internet. Taking eight years to build, it’s meant to create over 25,000 new jobs and cost a total of $43 billion that’ll be jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the private sector. Some analysts later worked out, based on providing a reasonable return to the private sector investors, the cost per subscriber for access to the NBN would be around AUD200/month.

I got pretty excited about this: I currently pay around AUD70/month for a cable modem connection at home that gives me about 8 megabits so we’re talking about a pipe that’s 12 times larger for around triple the price. (My cable provider advertises download speeds of 8 megabits but I’ve been assured by my more technical friends in reality I actually receive a fraction of this.)

That was until I read this week’s edition of The Economist. In an article about internet television, the correspondent explains how, in Japan, he currently pays USD60/month for a 160 megabits a second connection from his local cable company. Yes, you read that correctly. Today, in Japan, you can get a 160 megabit connection to the internet for USD60/month, and in the US, there are a bunch of cable companies who charge USD140/month for a 50 megabits a second connection.

Now we Australians are being told it could take up to eight years to build a massive network that’ll only provide 100 megabits. Am I missing something?

While I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments of the Federal Government, if we really want this to be a ground-breaking Snowy Mountains-like scheme, maybe we need to aim for something higher. The idea of simply providing double the capacity of our American friends over eight years doesn’t sound that appealing, much less so the idea of getting 60% of what our Japanese friends can receive today for a fraction of the price.

Tags: broadband, internet
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »