Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Month: September 2007

  • Moving House

    Hopefully, in the coming days, life can return to something resembling normal. As soon as I landed, the race was on to pack my stuff up and move the mile or so down to Abe’s place near the Zhongxiao / Dunhua intersection. As ever, moving was a stress and had mutiple unforeseen hassles, so I cannot imagine how Jade did it. Twice.

    Moving by itself is already quite a strain, but this pressure was exacerbated by the lack of foresight and consideration of my previous landlords. We told them that Saturday was the big day, so I was more than a little perturbed to arrive home one lunch time to find a team of betelnut munching workmen tearing the place apart, sanding walls and drilling holes. It almost goes without saying (except, clearly, to my landlord) that there was dust everywhere, and a disgusting, grimy layer of residue sat on all of my belongings, rendering my Mac, cameras, furniture, clothes, bed sheets and photographs all, well, disgusting. If they had only waited 48 hours – clearly too long – they would have had the place to themselves. But no. In their worldview turning the apartment into a tip is appropriate. Good riddance!

    Anyway, I am now sitting drinking a victory beer in the venerable PS: Cafe and feeling rather better. There is still a load of setting up and wiping down of my stuff, but things are rather more manageable now – maybe it is just the beer kicking in.

    And tonight, Jade and I head south to enjoy the long weekend (Mid-Autumn festival) and escape the bullshit. Can’t wait.


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    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Coffee Time

    I have just been sitting in the garden sipping on coffee that has been sitting in my room for eight years. That might not sound too apetising, but this bag of powder was bought from downtown Havana on my first really big solo adventure at the end of the first year of university.


    Cuppa Castro

    For some reason, I never opened the pack, but in the gradual clear-out of my room, I decided it was taking up space on the shelf, when it really should be drunk. Mum and I sniffed it for a while, deciding it smelled like weak chocolate powder – but Dad downed it in the way that only someone with an asbestos-lined throat could and seemed to enjoy it.

    Sitting in the garden, it’s really amazing to look back at that first trip and work out the events that lead up to it. Traveling by myself down to Grenoble for a skiing holiday … having a family member like Nigel around who was impossibly cosmopolitan and dashing … adventurous holidays with the Biddles … it all adds up to me flying ‘back to Mordor’ tonight on the red-eye express.

    It’s just the most amazing thing to look back at the first days in Taiwan, backpack barely loaded and without a clue of what to expect. And here I am, returning to Taipei and ready to move house, downtown and inspired and energised by a couple of meetings earlier this week that really reminded me that what I was doing is special, and that many people that I have a great deal of respect in want to hear about.

    It’s not easy living out east, on the edge of your motivation and on the limits of your personality, but I think I return this time with a touch more maturity and the ability to look back at something that I have built. And for that reason I think that gives me more optimism and resolve for the future.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Prince

    Seeing Prince live has sat around in my Things To Do In Life list for years and years, and I finally caught up with the wee scoundrel at the Millenium Dome in London last Thursday with Phil. That boy knows how to entertain, I can tell you, and played a frenetic 36-song set that included many of the classics… and one song with Elton!

    It was quite funny sitting in the new arena looking at the aged rocker belt out the song, and look back at the slightly tragic celebrities in Taiwan that I occasionally encounter and think … ‘what’s so different?’

    BBC: Sir Elton John Joins Prince in London


    Purple Rain, in a shot stolen on my camphone (people were being chucked out for taking photos!) … to be fair though, the guy is giving away the album for free, so it is hardly surprising that he is being paranoid about the in-show copyright.


    The encore after the encore, after the lights came up… quite a treat, but we did miss out on the aftershow, where he played some vintage Led-Zep… denied!

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Apple Web Gallery

    I have taken the plunge. I needed / wanted to give myself some more space for photos, so after weeks of deliberation (just ask Jade) I have opted to use Apple’s Web Gallery.

    In many ways, I preferred Flickr, but with a potential move to China this option would be pretty inconvenient. It’s not perfect – images uploaded are not full size and show signs of compression, managing the photos is a little primitive, and sometimes it behaves a little strangely, but for a no-brainer, super fast image upload system, this has to be a great option.

    Check out my pictures here:

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Pure Insight – Outsourcing Innovation

    Last week, amongst trying to relax with the family, I hosted an online ‘Webinar’ for a company called Pure Insight. The title? “The Next Logical Step? Outsourcing Your Innovation to Asia“

    I have used online meeting tools a fair amount in the past, but this was the first time I was driving a session, with a group of listeners around the world, and with no feedback except an MSN Messenger-style window.

    It was quite a tense build-up, but the session went pretty well, and I’ll be back next month for some more in-depth discussion with a few members.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • English Summer

    Apparently, England has failed to really have a summer this year. I am not sure I believe anyone when they tell me, because it has been gorgeous weather for the whole time that I have been here.

    I was calculating with Dad, I have not actually been in the UK in summer time for five years! Impossible to believe, but that includes three years away, and then a summer spent gallivanting off to Mexico. So it was rather a novelty to pack the bikes up and ride in Derbyshire in the summer time, with no ice and no burning lungs.

    It was a magical day, riding up and around Monseldale, but after riding on my old clunker (no suspension, thumbshifters, cantilever brakes) it feels like I have been in a fight today. My whole body has taken a beating. Still – hilarious, purist fun.


    Retro bikes!


    The Biddle boys on top of the world!


    Thanks Dad. Keep the day job.


    Better! (me trying to look cool)

    More images on my Web Gallery, here:

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • The Green, Green Fields of England

    I am home. Specifically, here:


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    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • My Chinese System

    I think it is worth talking a little about the technology I use, on a day to day basis, to learn Chinese. Some of it definitely does not work, some of it I think is very effective, and some is just fun. Also, after a while, I begin to forget what the actual systems are that I use when people ask, so writing this I hope could be useful!

    Mobile

    Hardware:

    I have been using Palms for the last two and a half years or so, and this is certainly my main centre of learning Chinese. Starting with a Sony Clié PEG-SJ35, and moving on to a Palm Tungsten T3, I am now using a Palm Treo 680 that is able to do everything I think I need, day to day.

    Software:

    Chinese IME: CKJOS
    This is the system that allows the Palm to view and write Chinese. I can type using PinYin or ZhuYin or write with the stylus, but it does lack some of the predictive text capabilities of PalmDragon that I had installed on the Clié.

    Dictionary: Dr. Eye
    I use this everyday and this is one of the most important pieces of software that I own. With it, I can translate from English to Chinese, or vice versa. It only does one word at a time, so it is a little inconvenient, and it seems to be missing words quite often. Sometimes, things like copy and paste are a little esoteric, but on the whole it seems to work.

    Flash Cards: Supermemo
    This is the most used piece of software in my arsenal of Chinese learning tools. It drives me up the wall, is completely inflexible, but I have so much invested in it now that there is no turning back – and being honest I really enjoy it, treating learning cards more like a computer game. Using the intelligent flash cards each day, it ends up that it only ever tests me on the characters that I find really difficult – the way it should be, of course, but why not flatter me a little more?! On average, I get about 75 cards a day from a total pool of 3700 at the moment.

    Other software: I have tried loads of other pieces of software over the years and in almost all cases I have been unimpressed. Please let me know if you have any more additions to the pile because I would be delighted to learn more!

    Computer

    Mac Software

    Chinese IME: QIM
    This seems to be much slicker than the standard PinYin input mechanism that comes as standard with OSX. You don’t need to be so accurate with your tones, which is great some of the time, and completely infuriating the rest of the time when you are trying to learn. It’s pretty decent, overall, and allows you to look at nice, big, smoothly rendered characters.

    Dictionary: WenLin
    I have yet to completely get to grips with this monster of a program, but I have been assured by several people that this is the way to go. I’ll probably do another entry, specifically on that, when I do get around to learning it properly.

    Dictionary: Wordlookup
    This is a nice, simple dictionary that Markus showed me, and I use this most of the time for quickly looking up things. I like the way that returns the results, compared to some of the other products out there like Atomix Dojam (horrid).

    Dictionary: TranslateIt
    I tried this for a little while, but in the end I went back to the simpler Wordlookup, while waiting to get moving on WenLin. Seems okay though.

    There is also an excellent summary of Mac software (along with some others) at the Yale University Council for East Asian Studies.

    PC Software:

    Chinese IME: Google PinYin
    I love this. It’s the best input system so far that I have found. I am pretty sure it is constantly checking with a server online to make sure the sentence is in context, and it really allows me to write entire swathes of text without needing to select a character from the list. It sometimes seems to be missing the most basic characters, though, hiding them deep within the selection list. Very impressive, overall.

    Dictionary: Dr Eye
    I have not used this in a while, due to the annoying little popup menu, but this is certainly the most popular system for Taiwanese people. I should reinstall it, really, and give it another chance.

    Firefox Plug-Ins and Online

    Dictionary: ChinesePera-Kun
    I just installed this today and I am quite impressed so far. The basic idea is that it displays a wee little popup when you hover over a Chinese character on a website. There seem to be some neat featured, such as export.

    Online Dictionary: Systran
    I have not used this site in a while, because sometimes it bugs me to register, but it’s not bad for those times when you need to brutally translate an e-mail or section of text.

    Dictionary: Google Toolbar
    There is an auto-translate function in here, but it only seems to go English-Chinese, so I got bored and disabled it today when I got ChinesePera-Kun up and running. Google being Google, I am pretty sure they will get it all up and running soon enough, and tie it all in with the IME – here’s hoping.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…