2008 in pictures

We are nearing the end of 2008 and here is a link to selections from The Big Picture's photographs of some of the major events.

LIFE photo archive

Some of the best photojournalism work ever published appeared in LIFE magazine. I am delighted that LIFE's photograph archive is available online, hosted by Google.

DxOMark

Innovations in digital camera technology have been made at a remarkable pace. New cameras are released almost every day and it is hard to even keep up with the different models. DxO Labs have a new DxOMark website which offers objective comparisons of new cameras, particularly digital SLRs and higher end compact cameras that shoot RAW images. The site is well worth visiting if you are considering purchasing a camera.

Old photographs of Hong Kong

This album has lots of old photos of Hong Kong and his site is well worth a visit. Other photos are available from the online Hong Kong Public Libraries site. The photo below is an aerial view of Tsim Sha Tsui from 1937.

The Olympics You Didn't See

Here a great video from David Bernett about his experience covering the Olympic Games in Beijing. Both funny and informative, it is well worth watching. If you are interested in the daily work of a top photojournalist you should also read his blog.



The Olympics You Didn't See from David Burnett on Vimeo.

A couple of good Asian photography blogs

Here are a couple of blogs well worth visiting.

1. http://www.chngyaohong.com/blog/ A blog from a Singaporian photographer about Asian photography
2. http://japan-photo.info/blog/ A blog about Japanese photography

Matsubishi Japanese Restaurant

This teppanyaki restaurant is very popular so a booking is essential. We normally order one of two meals, the "Tsuke" meal for $190 includes salad, King prawn (or scallops), salmon, beef, soup, pickles, fried rice, dessert or the "Mui" meal has everything except the prawn and salmon $130. There is a 10% service charge.

We have been there many times and have never been disappointed as all of the chefs here are highly trained. The food is always fresh and cooked to perfection. My favourite is the prawn head and the thinly sliced beef. Mrs Fisher likes the thick beef.

If you haven't been to Matsubishi, you definitely should try it out. It is among our recommendations for top five restaurants in Hong Kong and gets 5 out of 5.





Matsubishi Japanese Restaurant
Shop 301 3F
Renaissance Harbour View Hotel
Wanchai.
Tel 28241298.


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Hong Kong/Shenzhen border

Here is a photo of the Shenzhen River at Lo Wu which separates Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Shenzhen is on the right and Hong Kong on the left. Lo Wu is the busiest immigration point in Hong Kong. The introduction of automated booths which verify identify via fingerprints has done a lot to improve its efficiency.

Cottage Farm, Hay-on-Wye

As indicated by its name, Hay is by the Wye River, on the border between England and Wales. Hay is best known for its large number of second hand bookshops and is hence a bibliophile's paradise. Their official website is an good source of information.

We went horse riding with the Tregoyd Mountain Riding Centre, located in the nearby Black Mountains, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery that Wales has to offer.







Hay Castle has a history dating back to the 12th century and is the central landmark. It was burnt down (or destroyed in other ways) on numerous occasions and its west wing serves as a bookshop.



Here is a photograph taken from the castle, looking back onto the main street.



We had an excellent holiday there staying at Cottage Farm, an excellent bed and breakfast.



Cottage Farm is run by Julie Jones who made us feel like part of her family. Her breakfasts were definitely something to look forward to. Our room was extremely clean and comfortable. Overall, it was the best bed and breakfast we have experienced.

Hong Kong maps

Here are some excellent maps of Hong Kong courtesy of the MTR. They are the same as the ones showing local roads and buildings located in the stations. Public transport connections are also given. The one for Wanchai is shown below.




For an online map, Centaline and Google (see below) are good choices.


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Night photos of Brisbane

Here are some night photographs that I made in Brisbane.

Aerial Photographs of Sydney

Hear are some aerial photographs of Sydney, taken through the window of a commercial plane.

More thumb drive apps

On top of PortableApps described in my previous blog posting, I also include the following free programs on my flash drive:

• Portable gvim (editor with spell check)
• Portable skype (voip). You install this by copying the Skype directory from a working installation to your flash drive. In the "Phone" subdirectory, make a new file "skype.bat" with the following as the contents: skype.exe /datapath:".." /removable
• YamiPod (ipod support)
• Restoration (undelete files)

There are a few other websites devoted to just this topic. These include:

• http://portableapps.com/
• http://www.pendriveapps.com/
• http://www.everythingusb.com/software.html
• http://usb-flash-drive-review.toptenreviews.com/the-best-free-usb-flash-drive-applications.html
• http://www.snapfiles.com/features/ed_usb_software.html

All the above together with PortableApps take less than 800 MB. With these installed, I can work completely from my flash drive. The same applications also live on my laptop.

PortableApps

USB flash drives are now pervasive as they are a convenient way to carry around large amounts of data. I will be travelling soon and used this as a reason to update my PortableApps installation on my flash drive.

PortableApps is a freww application, ideal for the user who wants to bring their computing environment along with them on a flash drive. I like to have OpenOffice, Firefox, music player, ssh and a few other applications with me at all times along with some of my data such as powerpoint slides for presentations, address book etc.

All of the above is made easy with PortableApps. If I need to use a machine which is not my own, all I have to do is to plug in my flash drive and all my preloaded applications are available. In addition, the applications are configured to save data and settings back to the thumb drive (without leaving anything on the host computer). This means that you will not accidentally leave private or confidential information on the host machine.

The following applications are included by default:

• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)
• Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)
• ClamWin Portable (antivirus)
• Pidgin Portable (instant messaging)
• Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader
• KeePass Password Safe Portable (password manager)
• Sudoku Portable (game)
• Mines-Perfect Portable (game)
• CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)
• OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite)
  - Writer (word processor)
  - Calc (spreadsheet)
  - Impress (presentations)
  - Base (database utility)
  - Draw (drawing)

PortableApps allows other applications to be added on top of the base ones and I have included:

• 7-zip (compression software)
• Audacity (audio editor and recorder)
• BonkEnc (extract, convert and encode audio)
• Eraser (securely erase files)
• GIMP (photo and image editor)
• InfraRecorder (CD/DVD burner)
• Putty (ssh client)
• Toucan (backup, sync and encrypt)
• VLC media player (play videos)
• WinSCP (sftp, ftp and scp)

Overall, if you want a nice suite of tools to keep with you on your flash drive, PortableApps is highly recommended.

Sean Gallagher

Magnum photographer, David Alan Harvey, has an emerging photographer's fund. The first recipient, Sean Gallagher, had an excellent photographic essay on the encroaching desert in China which is well worth viewing.

Manuel Libres Librodo Jr.

I came across these wonderful photos of Asia by Manuel Libres Librodo Jr. He captures people in their environment and he is a truly excellent photographer.

Rainbow over Ocean Park

Caught this picture of a rainbow over Ocean Park while on my way to Lamma Island by ferry.

Fritz Hoffmann Photographs of China

Here is a link to some excellent photos of China by Fritz Hoffmann for National Geographic.

Golden Computer Center, Sham Shui Po

If you are reading this blog, it is very likely you own a computer, and this means you should visit the Golden Computer Center (also known as the Golden Computer Arcade) in Shum Shui Po. In the 1980s and 1990s, Golden was a center for pirated software and illegal computer clones. Since then, it has been substantially cleaned up but it is still a major retail outlet for computers, computer books, software and hardware accessories.

Golden is easily accessible by MTR and is located just across the road from the D2 MTR station exit. Roast Goose King is located nearby and worth visiting for a meal. We've provided a map at the end of this article.

Golden is a popular place for both locals and visitors. The prices are fixed and there is no need to haggle. All of the shop keepers I have dealt with have been very honest and you can shop with confidence there.

Here is a shop which specialises in computer accessories and media, particularly blank CDROMs and DVDs.



This shop sells peripheral devices such as mice, speakers and headphones.



Here is a place that sells memory cards at very low prices.



Finally, one of my favourites, this shop which is located on the first floor sells classical music CDs and DVDs at unbelievably low prices.




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Electrical Plugs

This electrical plug guide is a comprehensive list of electrical plug types used worldwide. In Hong Kong, we use the same plugs as in the UK.

Roast Goose King Sham Shui Po (燒鵝大王)

This restaurant serves all of the standard types of barbecue food but its specialty is roast goose. Whenever we go to Sham Shui Po, one of the most interesting suburbs in Hong Kong, we stop there for lunch. It serves the traditional stuff such as soya sauce chicken, bbq pork, roast pork etc. A normal rice dish costs about $25 and two kinds of meat are an extra $3. Soup is $6 a bowl.



Goose King has a lot of atmosphere and is highly recommended if your hygiene requirements are not too high. Service is fast an efficient and it is located very close to the Golden Shopping Center, the closest MTR exit being D2 of the Sham Shui Po station. Overall, we give it a 4 out of 5.



Roast Goose King
119 Fuk Wing Street
Sham Shui Po
Tel. 27259118


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Sichuan King Lam Rice Noodle Restaurant

It is easy to tell the difference between rice and egg noodles, the rice ones being white in color. We love both types of noodles and this restaurant specialises in rice vermicelli. It is always crowded around lunch and dinner times and is very conveniently located for people in Hung Hom or visiting Whampoa Garden.



There are not a lot of options on the menu but you can choose any number of the following toppings: beef, pork, goose, pig's liver, spicy minced beef, fish skin dumplings, bean curd, abalone, ham, cuttlefish balls, beef balls, fish balls, fungus, beef and mushroom balls, and fish head, pickled vegetables, lettuce, mushrooms, turnips, red sausage, wonton and pig intestines. Every bowl has bean sprouts, fried tofu and chives. You can optionally ask for Sichuan spice soup with many different levels of spicyness. Price is dependent on the number of toppings, 1 topping being HK$21, 2 toppings $24, 3 for $27, 4 for $30. They also have set meals and a $40 very large bowl with almost everything.

Bbq chicken wings (optionally spicy) $10 for 3 are a specialty and you should definitely try them out.



They also have afternoon tea specials from 2:30-6pm. Set A includes noodles with one topping, chicken wings and a bean curd drink for $21. Set B is also $21, and you get two toppings but no chicken wings.



We had a slightly spicy pig liver, mushrooms, fried bean curd rice vermicelli and a non-spicy wonton and turnip as shown in left and right hand side of the picture below. The service was fast and the noodles come piping hot. We also had a vegetable dish.




This is one of our regular restaurants and it costs about $30 per head. Perfect for a quick meal, the food is always excellent. There is also a branch in Jordan. We give it 5 out of 5.

17-27 6A Man Tai St
Hung Hom
Kowloon Tel 27656855


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Noodle Dim Sum King (面点王)

Noodle Dim Sum King (MDW) is a restaurant chain which sells handmade noodles, sort of like a Chinese McDonalds. We had lunch there on our visit to Book City.





You get a card which is stamped as you take food from the front counter and return to your table to eat it. Unlike McDonalds, waiters and waitresses are on hand to serve you. It is more upscale than typical noodle places on the mainland and is hence a little more expensive.



Noodles are freshly made and have just the correct amount of chewiness.




Many people order the braised pork ribs which are a specialty of the house. There is not much meat but they are very tasty. This a favourite of Mrs Fisher.



Kailani likes the cucumber marinated in soya sauce, chilli and garlic.



I like the beef cakes and Chinese pizza.


All in all, this restaurant is dependable in quality and we always look forward to having lunch there. It costs about RMB20 per head and we give it 4 of out 5.

Lok Ma Chau and Shenzhen Book Mall

We took a trip to Shenzhen to visit the Shenzhen Book Mall in Shaoniangong. The way to get there is to first take the MTR train to Lok Ma Chau (see the map here).

Lok Ma Chau is the new border crossing, designed to take some of the real estate and traffic pressure from the other crossing reachable by MTR, Lo Wu.



Compared with Lo Wu, it is not nearly as crowded. Opened only last year, the facilities inside the station are excellent though unfortunately, there is no taxi stand outside so getting one is a little chaotic.



The picture below is of the Shenzhen River which forms the border between Hong Kong and Mainland China.



Once you have passed through immigration, you are on the Shenzhen side which is called Huanggang. Go down to the subway and take it four stops north to Shaoniangong on line 4 (refer to the map here). The book mall is across the road from exit D as shown in the photograph below. A good street map is available here.



There are several book stores within the mall as well as a music shop, restaurants etc. More information about it is available (in Chinese)from their website.

They have a huge range of books, mainly in Chinese but there is also a collection of English books. For example, Henry David Thoreau's Walden was 18 RMB.