I Won Another iPod nano!

Well, lightning has struck twice. Last year at COMPUTEX, I won an iPod nano at the Thermaltake Party. This year, I won another one at the ZOTAC party. Unfortunately, I’m not much of an iPod fan so it might have to be given away at some point in the near future. Ed Lau also won an iPod nano. In fact, he was the first one to get called up. Jokingly, we asked our ZOTAC rep to draw Michael, Ed and me so when he drew my name after the third try, we were totally thinking that Michael would be a shoe in. Unfortunately, he got totally pwned. Poor Michael. First spooning, now no iPod or iPhone.

John Chow, who normally ends up winning something at every party, is currently batting zero. I guess that streak had to come to an end at some time.

Five Things I Observed About Traffic in Taipei…

Wow, I can’t believe that COMPUTEX is here again!  In less than ten days, Michael Kwan, Ed Lau and myself will be in Taipei, Taiwan for the second biggest Computer Show in the world. The biggest is CeBit in Hannover, Germany. This will be my third time going, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing all the cool toys and of course, reporting to you live about the whole booth babe situation. We’ll also be enjoying tons of free stuff and lots of parties! Since I’ve sworn off oversized free T-shirts, expect a few giveaways when I get back.

All the big websites that matter will be there like Tom’s Hardware and Anandtech including many huge overseas websites like HardwareZone etc. It will be great to run into old friends from other overeseas publications. Last year, I was so surprised when I ran into people that were just as excited to see someone from Futurelooks as I was to run into them. The last couple years, I stopped in Hong Kong, but this year, the weather here in Vancouver is starting off too nice to miss out on. I was going to head to Japan this year, but I’ll let Ed Lau scout it out this year before I head over next year. He’s heading over for a couple months after the show so I expect to hear about “Beautiful Girls direct to his Hotel”.

One of the things that Taipei is known for is the huge scooter population and the heavy traffic in the city core during rush hours…or hours…as the city is pretty much open 24/7. While in Taiwan for COMPUTEX over the last couple of years, I had a really good chance to observe the driving habits of the locals. I mean, it explains a few things when you head to Richmond and almost die. Here’s what I observed that may keep you from dying if you decide to go there and tempt fate by walking across the street…

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