Category Archives: random things

Honda is dead, long live Honda

Posted on by
Reply

If that title isn’t click bait-y enough…

Well, Yesterday Honda new CEO Takahiro Hachigo held a press conference and basically threw a lot of thing upside down inside out left to right and back and forth.

You can read Hachigo-san summary here, but here’s what I think.

Hachigo-san took a butcher knife and hack the hell out of Honda management and decision making process.

Buried under all that rose colored wordings, is the management change that Honda sorely needed or not… I don’t know… It’s all very confusing. Under Takanobu Ito leadership from 2009 to 2015, Honda for lack of better term is going through a peculiar time. During Ito-san leadership we saw Honda great three hybrid solution and the first ever mass produced turbo engine for almost than 3 decades on the Civic and JDM StepWGN. We also see the development of NSX and plenty of interesting cars such as ILX and TLX coming equipped with 8 speed dual clutch transmission and 9 speed auto that puts it finally with the “numbers aficionado” that is premium car buyers. We also see the record breaking Mobilio introduced in Indonesia that boost Honda sales beyond whatever they can imagine.

Yet, for every new interesting products Honda made for that time period under Ito-san, there’s always a hitch here and there. The Fit hybrid, employing the new hybrid system had a back and forth recall. The JDM StepWGN turbo engine is acceptable but not as revolutionary as expected, almost as if the usage of turbo is unnecessary for the car. Honda new (actually outsourced) 9 speed auto has a slight hiccup here and there. The Civic had its new 2.0L engine recalled, not even after 3 months of its introduction. There’s also airbag recall, but that’s third party event, out of reach from Honda.

Hachigo-san statement especially this one worries me… or not…

We will establish a structure where development teams at the spot can concentrate on creating automobiles and focus on the development of one whole vehicle as one product under a consistent concept. To be more precise, we will add some new positions, including new positions in charge of the area of product development, a new position in charge of conducting evaluations from the standpoint of the entire vehicle consistently for all models and new positions in charge of supervising design creation of Honda and Acura models, respectively, on a global basis. Through these changes, we will realize a development structure that can further highlight the unique characteristics of Honda.

This means that product development is going to be centralized. Is this good or bad? As I have concern for Acura in particular about this development.

Acura supposed to be the premium of Honda, but for the longest time, near premium is the only title Acura can be proud of. All of Acura products are basically premium version of the Honda cars it’s based on. ILX = Civic, TLX = Accord, RDX = CR-V, MDX = Pilot. Aside from RLX and Legend which is just basically badge engineered of the two and the NSX, all are just souped up Honda.

In 2014, Acura got a “task force” led by Erik Berkman, Honda America executive vice president, tasked to set up the planning for Acura product for the future. So with Hachigo-san shakedown, what happened with the task force?

In 2008 Honda finally gave in into the premium market market push and actually going to gun for the flagship premium at the likes of BMW and Mercedes. A spy shot was captured showing an Acura TSX with long wheel base and long dash to axle ratio indicating rear wheel drive. This push was part of two previous Honda CEO, Takeo Fukui project.

It seems that for every Honda CEO change there’s always a funky change be it organizational structure or management change. Hachigo-san push for a centralized design hopefully ends up sticking for the foreseeable future, and for every change of CEO doesn’t mean a constant change of strategy. Just make sure that future product planning is done carefully and with prudence.

It’s okay for Honda to take time to roll out new technology, fans will wait. Once somebody has been touched by a Honda product, they will always comes back.

Flu Babi dan Lapo Favorit Saya

Posted on by
2

Peringatan akan sesuatu yang membahayakan memang sebuah hal yang patut untuk disebarkan secara luas. Akan tetapi, peringatan akan sesuatu yang salah hanya akan menimbulkan kepanikan yang tak berujung.

Sekali lagi saya dihubungi oleh orang tua saya perihal flu babi dan anjuran untuk tidak memakan daging babi untuk sementara waktu. Alasannya adalah, orang tua saya menonton acara berita yang menghadirkan salah seorang menteri dan disebutkan bahwa untuk sementara jangan mengonsumsi daging babi. Tentu saja, orang tua saya langsung percaya karena yang menyatakan hal tersebut adalah seorang menteri… Tidak perlu cerita panjang, saya langsung mengirimkan dokumen resmi dari WHO ke orang tua saya untuk dibaca.

Seperti halnya kasus hoax Phenylpropanolamine, masyarakat kita terkadang memercayai sesuatu langsung dari mulut ke mulut tanpa klarifikasi dahulu… Contoh yang lebih konkrit? Anda cukup berteriak “MALING!!!” sembari menunjuk kepada seorang lelaki setengah baya di tengah kerumunan, seraya pasti lelaki tersebut akan dikerumuni massa dan dipukuli tanpa sebab.

Dokumen resmi dari WHO menjelaskan bahwa “Flu Babi” tidak dapat menular melalui daging babi yang sudah diolah dengan panas minimal 70 derajat celcius. Titik. Hal ini serupa dengan perlakuan terhadap daging ayam yang dicurigai terkontaminasi “Flu Burung”, Anda cukup memasaknya dengan panas yang sama. Seperti kita ketahui, rata-rata orang memasak dengan suhu 100 derajat lebih dengan cara menggoreng atau merebus. Jadi, apabila Anda memasak daging tersebut dengan cara konvensional, tidak ada hal yang perlu ditakutkan.

Adapun dokumen resmi WHO menyatakan bahwa “Flu Babi” memiliki kemungkinan tinggi berasal dari kombinasi “Flu Manusia” dan “Flu Burung” yang menjangkiti seekor babi dan bermutasi menjadi “Flu Babi” atau secara klinis disebut sebagai H1N1.

Untuk informasi lebih lanjut dan lengkap, silahkan unduh/download dokumen resmi WHO dari link dibawah ini…

http://www.who.int/entity/csr/swine_flu/swine_flu_faq_26april.pdf

Perihal penjualan daging babi yang menurun. Menurut saya pribadi, itu hanyalah sebuah euforia tanpa dasar. “Flu Babi” berawal dari Meksiko dan hanya bisa menular dari manusia ke manusia, kecuali manusia yang telah tertular “Flu Babi” berdekatan dengan babi, barulah terjadi kemungkinan sang babi terjangkit virus tersebut.

Tadi pagi saya menonton berita CNN mengenai seorang wanita Korea menjadi “suspect” “Flu Babi”, karena dia baru kembali dari Meksiko. Semua orang yang ada di pesawat tersebut langsung diperiksa secara medis dan wanita Korea ini masih menunggu hasil laboratorium dari Amerika perihal vonis kesehatannya.

Meksiko sendiri merupakan “Ground Zero” atau pusat penyebaran “Flu Babi” di dunia. Jadi, apabila kerabat Anda baru pulang dari Meksiko atau negara-negara tetangganya, terutama Amerika Serikat… Berhati-hatilah apabila mereka merasakan gejala flu… Bukan berhati-hati mengonsumsi daging babi.

Saya hanya lebih cemas terhadap kultur masyarakat yang gemar membuang ludah sembarangan. Karena ludah yang mengering lebih rentan menyebarkan virus secara “air-born” dibanding cara penyebaran virus lainnya.

Sedikit bacaan di kala senggang:

Pernyataan departemen agrikultur Amerika Serikat perihal konsumsi daging babi

Situs resmi WHO

Aman makan daging babi berita MSNBC

Typo Day… Creepy…

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I was out eating in a fairly new restaurant near my house, which my mom told me that is quite good. So I check the place, it’s a bakery/restaurant which serves mainly pasta and pizza, Asian style. So I ordered chicken mushroom pasta and a pizza with cheese and chicken… No, there’s no fancy name for both, just simple description and pictures. To say the place is nice is an understatement, it is very lavish and nicely decor’ed. But on the bakery side, I saw a lot of typo abound on some breads. That thing aside, when the food was served on the table, I reached out for the pepper… And I was curious looking at the title of it.

black paper

Really… Black paper, do they burn paper, ground it fine and serves it to the guest or what? And what’s Papper? Really man… That’s just wrong, I laugh for the whole day and make fun of it until today. The night when I want to get some sleep, as usual I watched National Geographics and Discovery Channel, to my surprise… Just take a look at the next picture.

I’m not even finished laughing from the bakery/restaurant pepper fiasco, now I saw that on the tv!! NATIONAL GEOGRAPGIC???!!!?!?? I hope NGC doesn’t display that typo on HD too, Is yesterday an international typo day? I’m just awe struck and still couldn’t believe it. However this could be a very nice article though, see you all next week.

Amusing lines found on the internet

Posted on by
Reply

I just found this…

Welcome to the Internet! Where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents

And I made this…

If small European city cars are coffin, what makes a motorcycle? An open casket!

The last line of jokes actually belittle two Asian made small car on an automotive forum, but as I am Asian… All hail Asians! Buy a Harley.