Saturday, November 13, 2010

乜都發水

早幾個月,發現我部MacBook 舊電發左水,脹大到頂住trackpad 個制,搞到無啦啦會當我禁左個制咁。

除左舊電會發水,層樓都可以發水。實用率越黎越低不在話下,原來唔同單位唔可以亂比較,因為大家實用率不同,建築面積高原來唔代表單位內籠一定高。發展商人話,大家買樓的時候都預左單位會發水,買地成本都會因應提高,所以唔可以話發水會令到發展商多賺到錢。

聽落有點道理,不過信報林行止專欄早排指出一點,又更有道理咁。因為起樓有得發水,一個發展商如果識得挖空心思,左度右度搵盡各種方法黎發水,咁樣佢的投地成本就可以越低。當然每個發展商的發水功力各有不同,發水能力低的,自然唔夠發水能力高的發展商比。結果就係,發水力強的就可以低價買地,發水力低的就要比多D錢。咁搞法,發展商之間的競爭,唔單止係鬥起樓質素,更加係鬥邊一間可以更取巧,可以發更多水,起埋更多唔等洗的野出黎博發水。

以上的評論,搞到我好似仇商咁,查實就未必,我只係想指出起樓發水有咩唔好。而另一方面,唔單只商家可以發水,而家連工人返工都可以發水。食飯照計唔應該做野,可以休息下,明明唔係做野但又可以當返緊工。起樓發水比人鬧,但返工用發水方法黎計最低工資就當成理所當然?人工低故然值得幫助,不過希望唔好學埋D發展商咁,一齊鬥取巧黎諗住篤高工時黎掙多D錢。

無論起樓,或者返工,甚至我舊電,希望都唔好玩發水,搞到大家頭都大埋,一味真亦假時假亦真。

Monday, September 06, 2010

Blocking Flash

I have recently found an extension to Safari, which allows me to block the Flash content of a webpage. The Flash content, which is often annoying and consumes quite much CPU, can be enabled only after I click on it, so that I can load only those I want.

The extension is called ClickToFlash. Have a try.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Changing Default Fonts on Mac OS X

To change the default (Traditional Chinese) fonts on Mac OS X, one may edit the following file directly:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreText.framework/Resources/DefaultFontFallbacks.plist

Also note that to be able to modify this file, you need superuser right. So one can "sudo vi" to edit this file. I used STSong for monospace and san-serif, while STFangsong for serif. These fonts look better to me than those Hei type fonts.

A simpler way to do this is to use TCFail. Indeed, I noticed the path to the above file by reading the source code of TCFail.

Update 2010-11-16: To make this works, the order of the languages has to be changed, so that Chinese has to be put in front of other languages (e.g. Japanese). This can be done in the Language pane of the Language & Text panel under System Preferences.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Calibre + Stanza

Recently I have finally found a way to read on my iPod Touch, using two free applications: Calibre (for Mac OSX) and Stanza (for iPhone). I guess they have been used by others for a while. This combo should work on platforms other than Mac OS X, and it doesn't require jailbreak to transfer e-books to my iPod Touch. I can now download some webpages, convert it to a better format for reading on iPod Touch, and read them in dark using my iPod Touch. Calibre also supports fetching webpages from some free news sources (or paid news sources, requiring proper authentication).

A good way to read on iPod Touch. Highly recommended!

Sunday, March 07, 2010

樓巿現況

今天城巿論壇討論房屋政策,請來了兩位「專家」,一位為測量師潘先生,另一位為地產經紀公司研究部的黃先生。現將討論中所聽到數據寫出來,用以衡量一下樓巿現況。

黃先生指出,現在是樓多人少,意思是現在房屋單位有2,400,000個,但家庭數目只有2,000,000,而這個房屋數目與家庭數目的差距在過往二十年是不斷拉闊的。

潘先生則指出,基於人口增長(每年約30,000人),每年的住屋需求大約10,000個。而由於新增人口中有些是低收入人士,他們需要的公共房屋,而非私人房屋,所以這個對私人住屋需要可能比10,000還要低。這解釋了過往三年每年房屋單位的供應大約為10,000個,但空置單位仍維持於約50,000個。

另一方面,住屋需求和置業需求是不同,前者為必要的需求,後者是指一些原本租屋的人改想置業的需求。前者的需求可由租金改變反映出來。往年的租金升幅只是幾個百份比,但價格的升幅卻有二十幾個百份比,以至租金回報率由以往4-6%降至豪宅的回報率低至1-2%。這顯示了豪宅的住屋需求並不高。

黃先生指出現在需求多是基於投資需求,這是由於現在利率很低,很多人買樓是由於銀行回報低所以拿錢出來投資,而過去一年的買賣合約宗數比按揭宗數多兩成。他亦指出,這類的投資需求可以消失得很快,當利息抽升的時候,這類需求可以一夜間消失,就像98年時一樣。

至於樓巿是否仍會繼續升?我不敢說。我現在只列出以上數據,讓我和大家一起參考。

最後想提出一點,就是我欣賞黃先生多次提到利息抽升可以很可怕。地產經紀通常都是催促買賣雙快點決定,希望能促成多些樓宇交易。但他提醒置業者要考慮清楚才決定的觀點,明顯和公司的利益有點相反。我雖然不知道他的說法是否可靠,但仍欣賞這種不受立場影響的講法。