The Gallery Hotel, Singapore

When I first visited to Asia in 1997 I’m sure a night at the Sheraton in Singapore was under S$100 (at corporate rate), but hotel prices there in the last couple of years have rocketed skywards. Laws of supply & demand are strongly in evidence – it’s hard enough most weeks to get any sort of decent room at short notice, and the big international names are now S$4-600+ per night, room only. But there are still some relative bargains around – I’ve just spent two nights at the Gallery Hotel in the Robertson Quay area.

Government by Fear in Singapore too…

I’ve been in Singapore for an annual meeting the last couple of days. Got my Starbucks, went to the office tower, went up the escalator on autopilot and found a set of pass card entry barriers blocking the way to the lifts. So a staff member directed me to where I could exchange some sort of ID for a passcard. No questions asked. I could then proceed through the barriers and up to the office I wanted to go to. On the way out retrieve your ID in exchange for the passcard.

Now I can see absolutely no purpose being served by this whatsoever, except to employ a few people to exchange IDs for passcards. To me it just seems to be something designed to remind people that they should in some undefined sense be afraid of something. WHY?

Question of the day for 25th February 2008

What exactly is a Load Toad anyway?

A blast from the past – Louis Steak House

A friend from the FCC had recommended Louis Steak House to us as somewhere to get a decent steak but without all the expense and poshness of Morton’s or Ruth’s Chris. So after Orpheus X, Mrs smog and I decided to try it out on Sunday.

Orpheus X

Feeling a bit guilty about not getting round to booking any of the events at the HK Arts Festival this year, Mrs smog & I decided to try one of the few events that still had tickets available when we did: Orpheus X by the American Repertory Theater at the HKAPA. This came with some fairly glowing reviews from other places, but frankly, despite my best efforts, I can’t really see why.

Thoughts on online copyright in Hong Kong

Since some forums don’t seem to appreciate any discussions which require more than a sentence or two, I’ll put here some thoughts on the current discussions on Copyright in Hong Kong, particularly as it relates to the internet and issues raised by the Edison Chen photo affair.

One “Dragonball” commented in HKExpats:

I’m still a wee bit concerned that posting a Youtube link could be copyright infringement.

It seems to me that this depends on the legal interpretation of this section (s.26) of the Copyright Ordinance:

A place of my own at last

Having repeatedly got fed up with admin policies at various forums in Hong Kong, I’ve finally got round to setting this place up as somewhere to share thoughts with anyone who cares to listen and, I hope, trigger some intelligent and rational discussion, free from censorship and pandering to political correctness.

Or, if certain people are correct, I’ll just sit here and watch the tumbleweed roll by.

I’ll also put up occasional reviews of bars, restaurants, films, arty things and stuff like that.

Look at “About smog’s blog” for how comments will work here.

Let’s see how it goes.