On The Radio... Talking about Ouya and Kickstarter
Wednesday, November 21, 2012 at 3:48 PM Android, PS3, Random, TBS eFM 101.3, Tech Prepaid Phones in Korea...#AlmostFAIL
Monday, October 22, 2012 at 2:55 PM The sheer enormity of my Galaxy Note II compared to every other phone in the world, throws up some unique issues.
One of them is its portability. While its face is Corning Gorilla Glass and its back is durable (and replaceable) plastic, when I have it in my pants pocket I am very wary of it - especially when sitting in a chair with arms, like the bus and indeed it does weigh one's pants down.
Since the beginning of autumn ("Fall" for the American reader) I have worn a blazer to work. And while having the Note II in my inside breast pocket seems a logical option, so weighted down is the side it is in, the blazer doesn't sit properly.
Such are the issues of a reasonably well cortured young man as myself.
So I have taken to throwing (not literally) the Note II in my briefcase and pocketing my Nexus S with a prepaid SIM in it.
Handy for sure for making a quick call or performing treage on my inbox while I leave the heavy lifting (like this post) to the Note II.
Handy that is, until your prepaid account runs out if money.
So I'm out here in Incheon and I know my balance will expire sometime this week. It's a KT prepaid account so I have no joy in finding a KT store to do the top-up (the suggestion of the KT rep at the call centre). The myriad of independent phone shops pose a problem, none of them deal with KT. (Despite big KT signs out front). One guy took my ₩10000 and said he'd do it in an hour. One guy flipped out when I pulled out the Note II to get the number for my prepaid phone and started asking for my ID. 'Cos I look like a gangster with multiple phones....
The KT call centre rep noted that there was no way to call an automated service and find my balance. Adding to the problem, and that I should call and talk to a real person if I wanted to know.
A real person!
(Although I do get a text messgae with the remaining balance after making a call. Not great when I can't make a call in the first place.)
The guy on the phone was reasonably helpful - so Kudos to KT, but why can't I just walk into Family Mart et al and buy a voucher, call the automated service tap in a code and be done with it?
Will get around to "topping up" my account tomorrow. For the meantime I will have to put up with my jacket sitting funny.
Korea Hates Costco
Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 2:24 PM 
Personally, I have never got the infatuation my American brethren have with the wholesaler Costco. Buying in bulk is seldom necessary for me, and while once Costco was a source of some of the more hard-to-get items from home, more and more these items are available via other means, like The Interwebs and places like High Street Market and The Foreign Market, in Itaewon.
That being said Costco looks like it is about to come face to face with the almighty power of the Seoul City Government over its refusal to close every second Sunday of the month, and it seems Seoul City is going out of its way to be a bunch of dicks about it
By way of a backgrounder - various local governments decided to mandate that big box stores such as HomePlus and EMart close their doors twice a month - essentially to give a leg up to failing "traditional" markets and Mom & Pop stores who, are suffering due to the always open (in a number of instances 24 hours) big retailers.
I don't necessarily disagree with the ordinance, but then mandating when people should be doing business is also a bit of a slippery slope. The retailers (though not Costco) took the local Gu governments to court and won - albeit on a technicality, its not necessarily unconstitutional for a local body to say when a shop can be open, but the way it was implemented was a bit dodgy by all accounts and as of writing EMart et al have a reprieve.
Costco flaunted the ordinance when t was enforced and is now claiming they have the right to stay open all but Chuseok, Christmas and New Year's Day. (and they are also claiming that because - ultimately - they are a "wholesaler the ordinance doesn't apply anyway).
In reply Seoul City has, rather indignantly said that since they didn't join the lawsuit with EMart and HomePlus and what not they don't have much of a leg to stand on. Which shows a fairly poor understanding of the way the law (and judicial rulings) work, and shows the flawed logic all to commonly bandied about in Korea....sigh.
Nevertheless, there's no need to be a dick about it, and it looks like Seoul City now has it in for Costco:
Inspection on Costco: City officials carry a sample box in front of the Costco wholesale store in Yangjae-dong, southern Seoul, Wednesday, after conducting an inspection to check if the store complies with operational regulations. The action came after the American wholesaler continued to defy a disputed municipal ordinance that forces discount stores to close every other Sunday to protect mom-and-pop stores from going out of business. The officials found that Costco’s three stores in the city have violated a total of 41 rules concerning sanitation, price tags, waste disposal, product design, parking and traffic control, emergency lights, firefighting equipment and other safety measures. The municipality has vowed to strengthen its crackdown on Costco and other ‘rule-breaking stores.’
(Korea Times)
Concerning that Costco was found to be not complying with "some rules concerning sanitation" , but one can't help but think that nspectors were mandated to go out of their way to find infractions. Kudos on the Cass beer cooler too!
But really Seoul City? Don't be a dick.
