Starting yesterday May 27th till June 3rd, Penang botanical garden will be laced with beautiful flowers blooming in season. Photographers, don’t miss this opportunity to show your ass, ops, I mean your skills. I was particularly amazed by the variety of Adeniums. My home has one, and it was no where close to some of the competition participants. There were also many varieties at sale, and they are not cheap. A small plant could cost from RM30-50 and a tiny stem cost RM10 to begin with. The varieties of Adeniums truly brings new respect from me to the plant. When my wife first took care of one Adenium from my parents, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Mainly because it is a hardy plant, and could survive any harsh condition. Now, I look at the plant differently, and would like to get a few more species, especially the white flowers and also “Princess Mikasa”, yes, I have also started to learn the names. We did not manage to go the entire Botanical Garden, we still have time to do that. From the papers, this seams to be one huge event, and we have only visited a small part of it. Watch my Photo Blog for some of the flower photos I took.

Get your products notice @ the airport. I was roaming Changi International Airport today in transit to LA. After an hour of so loitering and occasional emailing standing up @ the internet kioks, my legs begin to ache. To my amazement, I found free foot massage machine by Oto, and best of all, its free. It started ticklish, then slight pain, and bearing through the first 3 minutes, the rest of the 7 minutes were relaxing, and nice. The short 10 minutes massage leaves me rejuvenated and the feat felt light as I walk on.

During the 10 minutes of massage, I reflected on the opportunity companies have in getting their products noticed at busy airports. Millions of travelers transit @ Changi Airport each month and to have them try the product, its almost a free advert. I wonder of Changi Management charge these companies to place their device @ the airport. I would see this as a win win win, Changi management can provide comfort and services to the customer, at the expense of the product supplier, while the product supplier wins on the adverts, the consumer wins on the free service or comfort they receive.

Rock band My Chemical Romance first got notice and popular by giving their music free online, now they sells more CD’s & Concert tickets the could ever dream of. Is Oto trying to do the same @ Changi? Nevertheless, I for one now knows how good of a product the foot massager is, in just 10 minutes, I am refreshed. I have seen it in malls all over Malaysia, and never tried any of them. Now, if I see one on sale I wouldn’t mind buying one. The downside to this is Oto is doing marketing not only for themselves, but also for their competitors. Imagine, I see this product, I use it, and I loved it. Then when I get back to my country, I see similar product of different brand, I buys them.

So, while this model is win win win, there are risk involved. With a strong branding, and brand affirmation at these free kiosks, this risk can be mitigated. When I was in Changi Airport 2 years ago, there was free back massage by professional masseurs. I suggest the next time, you are in Changi, check out relaxing massagers.

Just recovered this blog and a couple of sub sites from the recent defacement. All the index file in the site were defaced. Fortunately, it is only the index files, then again, there are so many index files all over. It will be some time before the entire site can be recovered.

Notice two company who’s name associated with astronomy have a price hike. One with a 15% hike and a reshuffle of services, and another with 25% hike for the weekend. Astro have just annouced in the papers on their new service structure, and an additional 15% of hike. Not surprisingly, when there is market monopoly, one can command any price structure one likes. Fortunately, our telcos have a healthy competition, so the consumer gains. The star on the other hand, have risen from RM1.20 to RM1.50 on the weekend (according to the newstand guy). I wonder The New Strait Times have a price hike too? if not, I might turn to them from now on. If only I get this much of pay increase.