Taiwan

Taipei City’s Experiment: The Wireless City – 2007

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Ron Brownlow in the Taipei Times writes about the challenges facing Taipei City’s WiFi company, Wifly. Taipei Times also covered this on January 19th.

Taipei City government may have rolled out plenty of WiFi stations, but the take-up rate has been less than enthusiastic…. So why aren’t people using Wifly?

The article attempts to answer the question:

  1. it’s quite expensive for Taipei,
  2. outdoor usage in summer and winter is not comfortable,
  3. there are multiple ways now to access the Internet via mobile phone service, in-home Internet and cable television accounts.
  4. WiMax isn’t available yet here.
  5. there’s no Ipod/MP3/PDA device that could stimulate such interest
  6. there are competitive local alternatives: Free-Up, Coffee shops offer free access to clients, etc.

However, despite the problems that face WiFly in Taiwan, I do see a wonderful future as wireless connections will replace a lot of fixed connections, it offers additional mobility advantages, and will allow easy connections for a variety of devices, not just pcs and mobile phones, provided stimulus comes from a must have device of some sort. Right now, it’s a hotchpotch of devices, with nothing really compelling – (Iphone?)

But for people who work on the ‘go’ such as John Chow, wireless internet should prove a tremendous boon because it will liberate you from much of the drudgery of traditional office work. I do think the challenge in that case will be simply to create and have access to your data on the go, instead of it all being stored in a hard disk at home or office.

Some form of online storage will be necessary, at least for important work files. I can’t imagine the form taking WebDAV as a standard, but I don’t see how Google Office will help either, since much of our data will need to be available in a variety of formats, not just the typical Office formats. Formats such as databases, picture formats, video formats, audio formats, presentations, emails, addresses, etc..

Wonder when, though?

The Daily Latte

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How the money goes…?

latte

Yes, those $3 a day habits do really add up!

Let’s see:
$3*365 = $1095 per year.

That doesn’t include the overpriced confections, cakes or cookies.

So you could really save quite a lot of money this way!

I used to enjoy going to *$ onholiday in the UK. The sandwiches were fresh and delicious about three years ago. Last summer, I went. All I could find was stupid stuff that didn’t look good, wraps, I think. What happened to their excellent sandwiches?
It’s the same in Taiwan, the food quality of many of their cakes leaves a lot to be desired, and I even complained once to no avail, because one cake I bought was so awful, I threw 95% of it away.

Moreover, their food preparation is going downhill seriously. So with some careful choices you could really find a better way to save your money AND have good fresh food.

Kenneth

Business Management

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I have a very stubborn friend that reckons his biz idea - lets call it X - is a sure thing

he has little biz sense but is super keen, he has done no research on investment amount, demographics, market size, pricing etc etc. he simply thinks its a good idea

I have three or four things to say about this guy:

1. Of course, one of the problems in Taiwan is that people opening business most often don’t make adequate provisions for poor cash flow in the first 3-6 monthsj of their business plan. They often run out of cash after that period, and go out of business, even when they have a great product. I’ve seen many good business go to the wall in surprisingly short order.

2. Having said that, planning things can in some cases kill enthusiasm. We westerners tend to overplan for things to the point that the idea just dies from the weight of planning. A little spontaneity can really help get a business going. So I wouldn’t completely knock him without knowing such sketchy details as you have provided. Perhaps he’s prepared to roll with the punches, and see how things go.

3. Perhaps he isn’t worried about making a mistake or mistakes. Often, the fear of mistakes prevents entrepreneurial activity, and the planning covers the fear by claiming it is impossible. The best entrepreneurs plan, do, make mistakes and learn from the whole process, even if they decide their business didn’t work the first time.

4. So in some ways, I admire entrepreneurs who keep trying because making mistakes is a sign that one is willing to learn. But one has to be willing to learn something from each mistake, otherwise you are just banging your head against a brick wall, no?