14 January 2008
Far speakers
A phone is a handy invention.
In old times you had to shout to reach someone far away.
Those days are over.
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Casuarina Café
- Hot meals, Excellent soups
- Asian dishes, Western meals
- Coffee, tea or fresh fruit juice.
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All servings come
with a free smile
and the best view in Taiping.
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Casuarina Café
1 Jalan Sultan Mansor Shah
Taman Tasek
34000 Taiping, Malaysia
 +60-5-8041339
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A phone renders shouting obsolete.
You can speak at a normal volume and have a normal conversation,
even when your interlocutor is outside hearing distance.
Isn't modern technology wonderful?
Here in Malaysia mobile phones are very popular.
Yet,
loud
and
far
are still connected concepts.
- Phones make noise, the more the better.
A ships horn would be Malaysians first choice as ring tone.
- People don't talk with their phones, they shout at them.
- In western countries it is impolite and rude to shout.
Here, it is the normal thing to do.
Shouting can still be of use for people
without a phone.
But no, here a
far-speaker
is a
loudspeaker,
even with a phone.
It looks like people use phones as megaphones.
Shouting goes a long way, to far, even to Malaysian standards.
Even in restaurants, cafes and cinemas it is normal to shout.
The radio broadcasts educational advertisements with a revolutionary thought:
Mute your phone while in a cinema.
Well, switching the damned things off wold be even better,
but that is a thought beyond imagination.
Work at the Casuarina terrace
The terrace of the Taiping Casuarina Inn is wonderful:
- nice shelter during tropical rains.
- with a cool breeze, up on a small hill.
- looking over the beautiful Taiping lake gardens, with mountains at the
horizon.
- with plenty of electricity for a laptop
- even greater joy in afternoon and evenings: an open restaurant,
with hot tea, fresh fruit juices and a range of taste hot meals.
This Casuarina Inn terrace is SUMit HQ for a couple of weeks.
I am working in a quiet corner.
- Early morning the sun rises above the mountains.
It is a quiet and cool moment of the day.
- In daytime I enjoy the wonderful view unless it gets too hot,
when I take shelter in my air conditioned office.
- In the evening the view disappears into the tropical night.
The terrace is conveniently lit for my evening shift.
- The terrace day ends with a bit of light reading.
So, a perfect location to develop
planning software for the SCA factory in Gennep, the Netherlands.
Well, as long as the terrace is free of loud-speakers, that is.
My accountant will probably raise his eyebrows when he sees a recent business investment:
a large stock of ear plugs.
Those ear plugs upgrade the Casuarina Inn terrace,
from a noisy café back to a agreeable work location.
The shouting now faints into a background for me.
The loud-speakers are far-speakers.
If you get what I mean from afar.
Till
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