Why Would I Write

Category: Technology

  • 1Partridge4Me

    Promo codes are great. Especially when they help you save money on something you were going to buy in the first place. But sometimes, they compel you to spend money on something you weren’t even thinking about. Case and point – today I took an Uber to lunch in Kuchai Lama. Normally, I’d drive there but there were a few factors that pushed me into riding an Uber today:

    1) Parking there sucks – if you can find a spot (a difficult task, especially during lunch hour)
    2) My car was low on fuel, which meant I had to pump petrol before I headed out for lunch
    3) I had entered the Uber Christmas promo code which gave me 4 free rides worth RM4 each (1Partidge)

    Because I had the promo code, I decided to make use of it. It’s not a bad thing. I mean, the ride cost me RM3 after the promo code, which was cheaper than driving there and paying for parking. Also, I saved myself the trouble of looking for parking (I also did the same thing last weekend when I couldn’t find parking in Mid Valley, I drove my car home, parked and took an Uber instead).

    If I didn’t Uber to lunch, I would have been very late. Also, I would have been stressed out in the car looking for a place to park. Fun fact: my Uber driver had over 1,500 trips which I found very impressive. He also didn’t try to start small talk with me. He just drove me to my destination with no questions asked. I gave him five stars, of course.

    Speaking of five stars, do people even bother rating anything other than one or five stars? Very rarely have I encountered a driver who was just average at his job and didn’t warrant a five-star rating. I’ve met more bad drivers than average ones. Maybe Uber’s rating system should change to – would I ride in this car again? Yes/No. It’s not IMDB or Metacritic. There’s no subjectivity to this. It’s either the driver did a good job or he/she didn’t.

    Have you ever bought something from a store just because you received a voucher for it before? I have. A few months ago, Google rewarded me for my contributions to Google Maps (I tend to leave reviews and answer questions on the app when I’m bored). I received a RM40 discount voucher (minimum order of RM160) for Zalora, so I went on the store, signed up an account and did some shopping.

    Because I had the voucher, I felt like I would have wasted it if I didn’t use it. Even though I didn’t have to, and I could have saved RM120 by not spending on anything in the first place. But I guess that’s how vouchers work right? I did the same thing previously on 11street (but my order turned out to be the wrong product in the end and I was refunded after a long and troubling process – never shopping there again).

    Steam sales and Humble Bundles do that to me too. When I see a game I’m remotely interested in playing that’s on a deep discount, I pick it up. Now I have hundreds of games that I’ll probably never play in my lifetime (I’m slowly making my way through them but Dota 2 has consumed me).

    On a side note: I’ve torrented a lot of music, movies, books and porn for free – I’ll never finish them in my lifetime either. There’s just so much content available online, and even if you were strict in what you want to enjoy, you’ll never get to finish everything you want to. Maybe if you didn’t need to work for the rest of your life and you started at a young age. Maybe. If the internet died today, I would have enough content stored locally on my computer to last me for the rest of my life.

    Also, if you don’t have an Uber account yet and are thinking of signing up, you can use the promo code: georgew3261ue ?

  • Google Maps is great

    I’ll start off with a disclaimer: I’m a fan of Google and its products. I use a lot of their products and own multiple Android devices. I don’t believe that they can do no wrong, but so far they’ve been developing topnotch software and services. This post is about how great Google Maps is.

    “Argh! Sorry I’m late, Waze led me in circles.”

    “Waze didn’t know where this place was.”

    “Waze this, Waze that.”

    If there’s one thing I haven’t stopped hearing people say ever since Waze became popular in Malaysia, it’s how the app brought them to the wrong place. Maybe it’s just an excuse and the app has been wrongfully accused, but I hear it all the time. The worst part is? People don’t bother using alternative navigation apps and continue using it. What’s stopping you from switching to another app that does the job better? Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

    Granted, I haven’t reviewed every single navigation app out there, but I’ve been using Google Maps for the past seven years and I haven’t found a reason to drop it for anything else. I’ve probably gotten lost using Google Maps less than ten times since I started using it. I haven’t heard anybody complain about it either.

    Let me tell you what Google Map is great at doing – getting you from point A to B using the fastest route available. Feel free to add stops in between. It’s not perfect but that’s pretty much all I need from a navigation app. Features like automatic traffic reports when it’s almost time for an appointment are a bonus (thanks to Gmail and Calendar integration).

    Since Google acquired Waze and incident reports are now reported in Google Maps, there’s literally no reason to use Waze anymore. Arbitrary points, icons of cute cars and novel voice packs? Okay. I’ll take the app that gets me to my destination on time without all the extra bells and whistles any day.

    Google Maps is also great if you plan on taking public transport or walking. Its offline maps are also great for exploring foreign countries if you don’t have access to data on the go. Also, you don’t get ads cluttering your map (hopefully this doesn’t change). Using it on a PC is even better – you can get a traffic estimate based on what time you leave or get an estimate of what time you need to leave to arrive at your destination on time. Pushing directions from your browser to your phone also works great.

    As of now, I see no reason to use Waze over Google Maps but for some reason, almost every Uber in KL uses it. I’ll never forget the time I was almost late for a flight because the driver followed Waze blindly and ignored the huge physical signboards pointing him in the right direction to the airport.

    “Waze is better because it lets me know where the speed cameras are.” Better idea – how about not speeding to avoid speeding tickets?

    Google Maps is available now for Android and iOS devices.

  • Talking Without Saying Anything: BTC edition

    Talking Without Saying Anything: BTC edition

    In case you haven’t already noticed, my posts do have regular themes: Music Monday, Technology Tuesday, Writing Wednesday, Thursday Thoughts, and Freewriting Friday. I thought I’d start with some direction for my Friday posts – Facebook Feed Friday, the day where I write about the ridiculous posts being shared on my Facebook feed.

    However, after scrolling through my feed for half an hour, it turns out that I don’t have any ridiculous news to write about today. It’s either the Facebook filters are doing a great job (I have spent a lot of time hiding posts I don’t want to see) or people on my friends list are getting less gullible.

    However, while scrolling through my feed today I’ve noticed plenty of posts about bitcoin. I think more would have shown up if I continued scrolling. To be honest, I don’t really have much interest in bitcoin. I mean, I’ve looked it up in the past because I had no idea what it was, and that was it. I wonder if me writing about it will cause Facebook/Google to think I care about bitcoin and show me more bitcoin ads in the future. (Please don’t.)

    For those who aren’t in the know, bitcoin is basically another currency you can use to buy things. What sets it apart from regular currencies is that it is decentralized and unregulated, and as there are only a fixed number of bitcoins in existence, its value won’t depreciate like regular fiat money. Why is it suddenly in the spotlight? Turns out that people have started to recognize it and are investing in it before it gets even higher. Media coverage on it has sky rocketed, which has increased its popularity and more people are hopping on to the bitcoin train, continuing the cycle.

    My only experience with bitcoin has been in the past when my PC slowed to a crawl when it was infected with mining malware. If only I had started mining coins for myself back then. Maybe I’d be rich now. Oh well.

    Turns out, I really don’t have anything to contribute to the topic but for those of you interested in finding out more about bitcoin, you can read this helpful FAQ.