Stéphane Lee

I’ve got to pimp my About Me page:

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First, they took such a good domain name to do a digg clone. It’s very disappointing to use netscape.com for such venture. I would have preferred another domain name. If netscape.com were to be used for a software/browser-related thing, it would have not matter to me that much. netscape.com has a legacy that needs to be remembered and honoured. The millions of hits that netscape.com is getting is certainly due to that many people are still using Netscape browsers and do not know how to change the default home page. Every time, they open the browser, they get on netscape.com. I guess that’s why they took netscape.com domain name to do the digg clone. They could have done something under the cnn.com domain name which makes more sense to me. For example, users.cnn.com. Anyway, it’s weird to go to netscape.com which reminds me of old memories…

Don’t buy their hype. Don’t buy Apple computers.

That’s why:
Mac computers are more expensive than Windows’.
Mac computers are proprietary hardware. No OEM vendors! PC computers are built on open standards and has OEM vendors.
Apple accounts for less than 5% of the market. Dell alone represents 32%.
Mac OS X has less applications than Windows.
Mac OS X costs over $100 to upgrade each time (Jaguar, Panther, Tiger)
Windows runs faster on PC computers, not on Mac (Bootcamp).
I have yet to see Photoshop (Apple flagship product) on MacBook pro.

At first, I wanted a Japanese car and was interested with a Toyota Corolla. I thought of an American car for 2 seconds but decided to be reasonable. Reasonable being buy a Japanese car. These days, a Japanese car does not means that it is 100% Japanese. Honda Civics are manufactured in Canada. Honda Fit in the UK. Mazda cars have Ford motor engines. Ford owns Mazda, Renault owns Nissan. General Motors owns Isuzu… After two weeks of research, I chose the Honda Civic 2006. The Toyota Corolla is too small for me. The driver seat cannot be lowered. Only the Matrix could do the job. You can get $1000 off MSRP.

There is over 3500km on my Honda Civic odometer and I’ve been driving it for 2 months now. Here are my remarks:

Positive side:
Very spacious driver cabin.
Digital speedometer.
Big buttons for radio player and air con.
CD/MP3 player
ABS (other cars have this optional or do not offer it)
Side-airbags (other cars have this optional or do not offer it)
Maintenance minder (the car tells you when a maintenance is needed)

Negative side:
Soundproofing average (compared to a Corolla)
Car is low. I’ve scratched the bottom several times (when loaded) on the bump to my garage.

Security-wise, they have done a great job. They have become the reference for subcompact cars. The Mazda3s and Corollas will have to catchup, especially the Corolla which is in dire need of a makeover. Overall, I like the car and do not regret my choice.

Rupert Murdoch is a very astute, knowledgeable businessman.